Subject: The Brown Tree Snake
Date: Jun 23 22:39:23 1995
From: Tom Foote - footet at elwha.evergreen.edu



me again..

Last night I saw part of a segment Diane Sawyer was doing on
the *Brown Tree Snake* in Guam and neighboring islands. It was
chilling..the gist was there's no stopping them..they've cleaned
out the birds on Guam and, thanks to their amazing ability to
stow away on airplanes and ships they've now infested several
other islands..it was creepy to see film of them crawling across
roof tops and going into house toilet vents in search of prey..
there is a decided shortage of same as they've predated it all.
These suckers are BIG...4-5 feet long and *mildly* venomous..
They caught two of them on the tarmac at Honolulu..apparently
they dropped out of the wheel wells on a jet when the airplane
stopped to disembark passengers..they had them
pickled in a jar...one of the biologists interviewed said he
thinks it's already too late for Oahu!! he has reason to believe
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
some snakes have made it into the bush.. they also said they found
a live one at an Air Force Base in N. Carolina THAT HAD BEEN IN
A CARGO BAY FOR 7 MONTHS!!

The saddest thing was to see that biologist resigned to the fact
that Oahu has already been infested.

I thought it was all supposed to end with *fire and ice*..it never
occurred to me it would end with snakes..apparently these things are
so hungry they're climbing power poles and shorting out the power
supply to parts of Guam..one actually (are you ready for this?) got
into a crib and bit a 5 1/2 month old baby and then began with it's
hand and tried to swallow it..not possible of course, but the
snakes apparently take on anything..yes, they saved the child..who
went into cardiac arrest because of the venom..

What to do here? Import Serpent Eagles?..probably not a good
idea..the snakes are probably too large anyway..what about
the hog industry coming to the rescue..? When I was in Oklahoma
as an undergrad, I learned the ranchers there grazed hogs with
the cattle specifically to keep the snakes down..they apparently
ate 'em like licorice sticks..

The bird content here has disappeared on Guam and may be in grave
danger everywhere else..

This is worse than a horror movie..

I'm so depressed...


Tom


Tom Foote footet at elwha.evergreen.edu
Lab II
The Evergreen State College (360) 866-6000 x6118
Olympia, WA 98505