{"id":218868,"date":"2016-01-18T06:06:57","date_gmt":"2016-01-17T20:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=218868"},"modified":"2016-01-18T06:06:57","modified_gmt":"2016-01-17T20:06:57","slug":"search-continues-sighted-brown-tree-snakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/search-continues-sighted-brown-tree-snakes\/","title":{"rendered":"Search continues for sighted brown tree snakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Searchers<\/a>
Searchers from various local and federal agencies continue to look for the brown tree snakes spotted earlier this month. They are currently focusing on and scouring parts of Dandan Village where the sightings were reported. (Frauleine Villanueva-Dizon)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nThe search continues for possible brown tree snakes on island following two sightings earlier this month.<\/p>\n

According to the U.S Geological Survey, one of the agencies that are currently on island to help local agencies, they have no evidence or trace yet of the snake that was estimated to be 4 to 5 feet long according to eyewitnesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of evidence, it\u2019s pretty tough to find. If there\u2019s a snake there, maybe we can find a shed, a snake shed, but a lot of times it\u2019s going to be deep in the jungle somewhere,\u201d USGS rapid response team coordinator Adam Knox told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be great to have the snake go in the trap but the valuable role is to get the snake closer to us especially at night. The traps are all set up on our search line,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The search team isn\u2019t also sure how many snakes were able to get on island.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope that it\u2019s just one snake but we don\u2019t know,\u201d DLNR-DFW wildlife section supervisor Anne Orlando said.<\/p>\n

Asked about the possibility of snake reproduction, Knox said there is a possibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do know that it\u2019s possible for a snake to, if it got away from Guam and when it came here it\u2019s a pregnant female, it can obviously have babies here without finding a new snake to mate with,\u201d Knox said.<\/p>\n

He added that female brown tree snakes can store sperm up to more than a year for it to reproduce.<\/p>\n

According to Knox, the rain events experienced over the last days makes the situation better for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt actually makes it better. The snakes start moving around when it rains or sometimes they get flooded out of their burrow or wherever they may be hiding,\u201d Knox said. <\/p>\n

About 15 people from agencies such as USGS, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and the CNMI Department of Lands and Natural Resources-Division of Fish and Wildlife are conducting intensive night searches on the ground as well as trees for four to five hours nightly as the brown tree snakes tend to move and search for prey at night and around dawn and dusk<\/p>\n

Over 80 mouse-baited traps have been set. <\/p>\n

The searchers are looking around the area in Dandan as the sightings happened in the residential area there, as well as by the airport.<\/p>\n

Knox said they may widen the search area should they not be able to find the snake in the said village.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now this is what we\u2019re focused on but there\u2019s always a chance we could [widen the search area],\u201d Knox said.<\/p>\n

Knox and Orlando stressed the need for everyone in the public to keep their eyes open for brown tree snakes and should they see one, try to make an effort to catch, trap, or decapitate it.<\/p>\n

They said that it is easy to catch it by the tail especially when it is in its escape mode when it tries to get away from you. Should a snake be in the defensive mode, described as when the head looks directly and is in S-form, it would be best to wait for it to get into escape mode.<\/p>\n

In grabbing the snake\u2019s tail, avoid lifting it all the off the ground so that it won\u2019t curl up to your hand. The snake can be hit by a sharp object such as machete or shovel tip to decapitate it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The search continues for possible brown tree snakes on island following two sightings earlier this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":218881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[9196,9197,38,857],"class_list":["post-218868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-adam-knox","tag-anne-orlando","tag-saipan-tribune","tag-usgs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}