Posted by:
BackBeat
at Wed Jul 19 10:34:19 2006 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by BackBeat ]
Hawaii has an extremely hospitable climate and environment for escaped herps.
I've read of ESTABLISHED populations of a few boid species. (Boa constrictors, Burmese Pythons, etc.) And I've also read of the extinction of numerous native bird species because of escaped foreign species preying upon native species.
Hawaii just wants to avoid becoming the next Guam. Guam's ecology has been practically taken over by the non-native brown tree snake. The snakes arrive in cargo and thrive in Guam's climate
A table of estimates from a U.S Ecological survey:
Brown tree snakes per square mile on Guam, 1940: 0
Brown tree snakes per square mile on Guam, 2000: up to 13,000
Native bird and mammal species on Guam, 1940: 16
Surviving native bird and mammal species, 2000: 4
Like I said, Hawaii just wants to avoid becoming the next Guam.
BB
-----
"Have you hugged your drummer today?" --- Me
[ Show Entire Thread ]
|
