The brown tree snake does not occur in the Philippines or farther west than Sulawesi, Indonesia. Thus, it is incorrect to refer to the snakes on Guam as Philippine rat snakes. The snake is an able climber and is most at home in trees and shrubs where it forages at night to find lizards, birds, and mammals using its keen sense of smell and sensitive night vision. It frequently invades homes, commercial buildings, and other urban habitats in search of food and hiding spots. Any site that provides protection from bright light and high temperatures is a potential daytime retreat.
Snakes can coil their flexible bodies in extremely confined spaces when hiding.
The eggs are abandoned by the female in caves, hollow trees, or in other places where they hatch if adequately protected from drying and overheating. The young snakes are about 18 inches in length when they hatch about 90 days later, but they may reach lengths of 3 feet in about one year. Snakes are about 4 to 5 feet long and about 3 years old when they first reproduce. In Palau, native snakes should not be indiscriminately killed or confused with the brown tree snake. Prior to the arrival of the brown tree snake, Guam had only one other snake, a tiny blind snake, Rhamphotyphlopys braminus , which is harmless to man, lives in the soil, and feeds on the eggs and young of termites and ants.