Managing Island Biotas: Brown Treesnake Control Using Barrier Technology

An Evaluation of Passive Thermal Fumigation for Brown Treesnake Control in Surface Transportation from Guam

The brown treesnake (BTS) has been on Guam for about 50 years and in this period has caused extensive ecological, economic, and social damage. It has also repeatedly dispersed from Guam via the transportation network, arriving at numerous locations. However, the conditions snakes face in surface shipping are unknown, making assessment of the risk of snake survival impossible. To address this, w...

Effects of an invasive predator cascade to plants via mutualism disruption

Invasive vertebrate predators are directly responsible for the extinction or decline of many vertebrate species, but their indirect impacts often go unmeasured, potentially leading to an underestimation of their full impact. When invasives extirpate functionally important mutualists, dependent species are likely to be affected as well. Here, we show that the invasive brown treesnake, directly r...

Cool Temperatures Elicit Reproduction in a Biologically Invasive Predator, the Brown Treesnake (<i>Boiga irregularis</i>)

Vertebrate species introductions in the United States and its territories

At least 1,065 introduced vertebrate species have been introduced in the United States and its territories, including at least 86 mammalian, 127 avian, 179 reptilian/amphibian, and 673 fish species. Examples in each major taxonomic group include domestic cat, small Indian mongoose, red fox, goat, pig, rabbit, rats, house mouse, gray squirrel, nutria, starling, Indian common myna, red-vented bul...

Four Darwinian themes on the origin, evolution and preservation of island life

The above excerpts of quotations from Charles Darwin’s writings, which I present and discuss in detail below, capture themes that proved seminal for generations of scientists who were equally captivated by both the marvels and the perils of island life. Although presented as I have done so above as disarticulated and seemingly unrelated metaphors and observations, these passages from Darwin’s p...