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#           Invasive brown treesnakes (Boiga irregularis) move short distances and have small activity areas in a high prey environment      

      July 26, 2022    

Animal movements reflect temporal and spatial availability of resources as well as when, where, and how individuals access such resources. To test these relationships for a predatory reptile, we quantified the effects of prey abundance on the spatial ecology of invasive brown treesnakes (Boiga irregularis) on Guam. Five months after toxicant-mediated suppression of a brown treesnake population, we simultaneously used visual encounter surveys to generate relative rodent abundance and radiotelemetry of snakes to document movements of surviving snakes. After snake suppression, encounter rates for small mammals increased 22-fold and brown treesnakes had smaller mean daily movement distances (24 ± 13 m/day, x ̄">x ± SD) and activity areas (5.47 ± 5 ha) than all previous observations. Additionally, snakes frequenting forest edges, where our small mammal encounters were the highest, had smaller mean daily movement distances and three-dimensional activity volumes compared to those within the forest interior. Collectively, these results suggest that reduced movements by snakes were in part a response to increased prey availability. The impact of prey availability on snake movement may be a management consideration when attempting to control cryptic invasive species using tools that rely on movement of the target species to be effective,

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April 7, 2023

####                 Brown treesnake movement following snake suppression in the Habitat Management Unit on Northern Guam from 2015              

Fort Collins Science Center

#### Melia Nafus, Ph.D.

##### Research Ecologist

Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center

mnafus@usgs.gov

#### Amy Yackel Adams, PhD

##### Supervisory Research Ecologist

Fort Collins Science Center

yackela@usgs.gov

970-226-9489

#### Robert Reed

##### Deputy Center Director

Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center

reedr@usgs.gov

808-210-5315

## Related Content

April 7, 2023

####                 Brown treesnake movement following snake suppression in the Habitat Management Unit on Northern Guam from 2015              

Fort Collins Science Center

#### Melia Nafus, Ph.D.

##### Research Ecologist

Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center

mnafus@usgs.gov

#### Amy Yackel Adams, PhD

##### Supervisory Research Ecologist

Fort Collins Science Center

yackela@usgs.gov

970-226-9489

#### Robert Reed

##### Deputy Center Director

Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center

reedr@usgs.gov

808-210-5315

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####               Fort Collins Science Center          

2150 Centre AvenueBldg CFort Collins, CO80526United States

970-226-9100

970-226-9230

####               Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center          

Crater Rim Drive, Hawai‘i Volcanoes National ParkPO Box 44Hawai‘i National Park, HI96718United States

(808) 985-6420

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