I would not in any way devalue the importance of the ecosystem on HI, I just think they're going a little overboard on this playing up to people's already irrational fear of snakes.

As others have already pointed out, this is less of a case of protecting the public from a potentially dangerous animal, but rather an issue of protecting an ecosystem that is likely to be highly vulnerable to invasion by an exotic predator. Even the most drastic textbook examples - such as the one of B. irregularis in Guam - originated in a few individual specimens reaching a vulnerable ecosystem. Invasions are a very serious issue, especially for small, isolated systems, such as islands. Placing great importance on removing such potential threats right away should therefore hardly be perceived as "going a little overboard" just because it happens to involve a charismatic organism.


Regards,

Thomas Eimermacher
Department of Biological Sciences
Southeastern Louisiana University

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