Lesson 1.
10: Launch Lesson – Invasive Species—Brown Tree Snakes in Guam
Unit 1: Ecological Systems
Brown Tree Snake Clue Cards HANDOUT
1.10.A
CLUE CARD 1: MICE DROPPED ON GUAM BY PARACHUTE
They floated down from the sky Sunday—2,000 mice, wafting on tiny cardboard
parachutes over Andersen Air Force Base in the U.S. territory of Guam. But the
rodent commandos didn’t know they were on a mission: to help eradicate the
brown tree snake, an invasive species that has caused millions of dollars in wildlife
and commercial losses since it arrived a few decades ago. That’s because they were
dead. And pumped full of painkillers.
The U.S. has tried lots of ways to eliminate the snakes, which it says likely arrived
in an inadequately inspected cargo shipment sometime in the 1950s. Snake traps,
snake-sniffing dogs, and snake-hunting inspectors have all helped control the
population, but the snakes have proved especially hardy and now infest the entire
island.
But brown tree snakes have an Achilles’ heel: Tylenol. For some reason, the snakes
are almost uniquely sensitive to acetaminophen, the active ingredient in the
ubiquitous over-the-counter painkiller. If you can get a tree snake to eat just 80
milligrams, you can kill it. That’s only about one-sixth of a standard pill—pigs,
dogs, and other similarly sized animals would have to eat about 500 of the baited
mice to get a lethal dose.
Adapted from M. Alex Johnson, “Two thousand mice dropped on Guam by parachute—to kill snakes.”
© 2014 by NBC News.
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Lesson 1.10: Launch Lesson – Invasive Species—Brown Tree Snakes in Guam
Unit 1: Ecological Systems
HANDOUT
CLUE CARD 2: DATA ON BIRD POPULATIONS ON GUAM FROM 1976 TO 2000 1.10.A
Yellow Bittern Guam Rail
20 60
Birds/100 km
Birds/100 km
40
10
20
0 0
76 80 84 88 92 96 76 80 84 88 92 96
Year Year
Brown Noddy Mariana Fruit-Dove
3 5
4
Birds/100 km
2 Birds/100 km
3
2
1
1
0 0
76 80 84 88 92 96 76 80 84 88 92 96
Year Year
Micronesian Kingfisher Black Drongo
12 300
Birds/100 km
Birds/100 km
8 200
4 100
0 0
76 80 84 88 92 96 76 80 84 88 92 96
Year Year
Adapted from Gary J. Wiles, Jonathan Bart, Robert E. Beck, Jr., and Celestino F. Aguon, “Impacts
of the Brown Tree Snake: Patterns of Decline and Species Persistence in Guam’s Avifauna” in
Conservation Biology. © 2003 by John Wiley and Sons.
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Lesson 1.10: Launch Lesson – Invasive Species—Brown Tree Snakes in Guam
Unit 1: Ecological Systems
HANDOUT
CLUE CARD 3: GUAM COULD LOSE MORE THAN ITS BIRDS 1.10.A
In the last 60 years, brown tree snakes have become the embodiment of the bad
things that can happen when invasive species are introduced in places where they
have few predators. Unchecked for many years, the snakes caused the extinction of
nearly every native bird species on the Pacific island of Guam.
A variety of other damage has been directly attributed to brown tree snakes,
including large population losses among other native animal species in Guam’s
forests, attacks on children and pets, and electrical power outages. But new research
by University of Washington (UW) biologists suggests that indirect impacts might
be even farther reaching, possibly changing tree distributions and reducing native
tree populations, altering already damaged ecosystems even further.
Birds typically make up a small part of the life of a forest, but they are important for
pollination, spreading seeds around the forest and controlling insects that feed on
plants. Guam, an island 30 miles long and 5 to 15 miles wide about 3,800 miles west
of Hawaii, lost most of its native birds after the brown tree snake was introduced
by accident from the Admiralty Islands following World War II. The snake has few
predators on Guam, so its population density is quite high—estimated at more than
3,000 per square mile—and some individuals there grow to an unusual size of 10
feet long.
Before introduction of the brown tree snake, Guam had 12 species of native forest
birds. Today 10 of those are extinct on Guam, and the other two species have fewer
than 200 individuals. Though Guam has some nonnative bird populations, few
other birds moved in when native species died out, and none of them live in the
forest. That leaves few birds to consume tree seeds and then drop them away from
the trees.
Adapted from Vince Stricherz, “Brown Tree Snake Could Mean Guam Will Lose More Than Its Birds.”
[Link]
more-than-its-birds-2/. Used with permission.
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Lesson 1.10: Launch Lesson – Invasive Species—Brown Tree Snakes in Guam
Unit 1: Ecological Systems
Drawing Conclusions About Brown Tree HANDOUT
1.10.B
Snakes
1. The brown tree snake is native in areas such as Australia and eastern Indonesia. In
those ecosystems, the brown tree snake is not causing the decline of bird or tree
populations. So what makes this same species damaging in Guam? Identify some
characteristics a species may possess that would fuel its ability to cause ecological
damage, as the brown tree snake has in Guam. Provide some reasoning for why
you chose these characteristics.
The charactsitics include a big
growing animal, being dast, it
would blend in well with its
surroundings. These
characteristics would help it
catch birds as well as easily
escaping predators.
2. Make a list of ecological consequences that you can infer have occurred on Guam
due to the introduction of the invasive (nonnative) brown tree snake.
Extinction of native animals the
snakes feed on, an increasing
need of safety for small children
and pets, disrupting food chains
of that island causing a possible
decrease in plant life.
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Lesson 1.10: Launch Lesson – Invasive Species— Brown Tree Snakes in Guam
Unit 1: Ecological Systems
HANDOUT 3. On the first clue card, you learned how scientists are trying to control the snakes
1.10.B
by dropping acetaminophen-laced mice into Guam to kill the snakes. Do you
think we should get involved in cases like this to try to fix problems that we
started? Can you think of any problems that might happen because of humans
trying to fix the original problems?
Yes, we need to save the species
but trying to fix the problems we
started we could possibly make it
worse and damaging the
ecosystem even more than it
would have been originally.
4. According to the article, there are 3,000 brown tree snakes in Guam per square
mile ( mi 2 ) . The average high school in the United States is approximately
121,000 square feet or 0.004 square miles ( mi 2 ) . According to these numbers, how
many brown tree snakes would be found in an area the size of a typical U.S. high
school?
About 12 snakes per high school
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