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MAUI NEWS (Wailuku, Hawaii) 28 February 06 Snake hunters scouring Wahikuli (Brian Perry)
Lahaina: Snake hunters, working in two teams of two, have been making daily raids into Wahikuli Village to try to catch a possibly venomous snake spotted crawling under a fence at a residence on Feb. 20.
If the snake is poisonous, which state officials remained unsure of Monday, then those hunting it are left with a "very, very bad search situation," said Fern Duvall, the state wildlife biologist on Maui.
Exercising ample caution, the snake hunters are working in an old residential area with a lot of debris available for the serpent to hide, Duvall said.
"We don’t want to end up on the wrong side of the snake," he said.
The daily searches, ongoing since Friday, start in the morning and go on for two to three hours, Duvall said.
He said he believes it’s possible the snake is staying in the vicinity where it was spotted, although it’s probably hiding in a secluded area, digesting whatever food it might have caught. (Food sources include rodents and lizards.)
Duvall said the area "offers everything a snake would want" – ample food, shelter and water.
Trying to lure the snake out of hiding, 25 traps baited with live mice have been laid out in the Wahikuli area, he said. But, making the snake’s capture more difficult is the area’s ample supply of wild rodents, making the traps less inviting for the snake.
Duvall said snake hunters are using poison, approved by the state Department of Health, to "knock down" the wild rodent population, leaving the mice-baited traps as a more enticing place for a meal.
He said officials have gone house to house in Wahikuli, warning residents that a snake has been spotted in their neighborhood.
Signs were posted as warnings as well, but they’ve been stolen, possibly by people taking them as collector’s items, Duvall said.
"It would be nice if the signs were left in place," he said.
The signs have information on who to call if a snake is sighted. (That phone number is 643-PEST, or 643-7378. People also can call the Maui Police Department at 244-6400.)
"We definitely want people to be extremely cautious," he said.
Duvall also cautioned area residents that baited traps are likely to be "focal points for the snake, hopefully," and areas near, under or around a trap should be pproached cautiously.
Officials taking part in the snake hunt are from the state Department of Agriculture and the Department of Land and Natural Resources. They are being assisted by representatives of the Maui Invasive Species Committee.
The traps were provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the rodent poison came from the state Health Department, Duvall said.
"It’s a very big collaborative effort," he said.
Although the snake initially was seen Feb. 20, state officials did not conduct a search of the area until Thursday, Duvall said.
He said the state’s response was delayed because the man who saw the snake speaks Spanish and no English and didn’t know that snakes do not belong in Hawaii.
The incident initially was reported Feb. 21, but a Spanish-speaking translator needed to be found for officials to interview the witness, finally, on Wednesday.
Duvall said he learned of the snake sighting Thursday afternoon and began a search of the area then.
The man interviewed by state officials was "very good at giving details" and showed some familiarity with snakes because he had worked in fields in Mexico, Duvall said.
The man described the snake as being 12 to 14 inches long. He saw it slithering on the ground, moving in an undulating manner and slipping under a fence.
"He tried to actually kill the snake using his weed whacker," Duvall said.
He said officials concluded the snake is possibly venomous after the man described its movements and identified a photo of a poisonous snake as being what he believed he saw.
Duvall declined to say what species of snake the man identified. He said it was not a brown tree snake, the species of snake that nearly has wiped out the bird population on the island of Guam, a U.S. territory in the Western Pacific.
The man described the snake as being gray and not glossy, and he didn’t describe any pattern for the snake’s scales, according to Duvall.
"It moved fast," Duvall said, adding that officials believe the snake is active during the daytime and probably crawls on the ground rather than climbing trees.
Duvall said officials are investigating where the snake came from and how it might have arrived on Maui.
While the focus of snake hunters is in the Wahikuli area, they’re also searching for what’s believed to be a nonvenomous garter snake seen in the second week of February by golfers on a course in Kapalua, Duvall said. Officials saw tracks in sand traps that verified a snake had been on the golf course.
Traps have been set to try to capture that snake as well, he said.
The garter snake is either brown or black with yellow lines running the length of its body, according to Duvall. It’s about 18 inches long and as thick as a person’s thumb.
Snake hunters scouring Wahikuli

Whew, thank goodness they had a Mexican field worker on the scene to so aptly key out that very dangerous gray-not-glossy-no-patterned grassvipcobpyboa!! In all seriousness though, I'm just wondering how much money is being wasted in the attempt at locating this 'possibly deadly' creature, which is probably little more than someone's escaped pet colubrid or something. With that description, if it's venomous it's an elapid, and then HI possibly has lots more problems than it knows, like underground venomous keepers or feral elapids. Of course, there are no elapids fitting that description found in Mexico...so I'm curious as to what species the man pointed out.
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Chance Duncan
www.rivervalleyexotics.com

so why not ask it? Is this the same Mexican immigrant who was bitten by a venomous snake in Pembroke Pines, Florida a few weeks ago? Whatever happened to that guy?

It is hard to get a snake to HI. BUT, this is really a serious problem. Island ecosystems are very fragile and HI is one of the few places that "learned their lesson" with the mongoose and Jackson fiascos.
Underground keepers aren't such a big problem as you think. Mostly because they are REALLY unfriendly to people who do that. For them it is worth the expense that they go to. And if you had ever been there it would be worth it to you too. It's ecosystem is truly amazing and a total pleasure to see and experience.
Maybe if people here felt the same way we wouldn't have Rattlesnake Roundups.

Possibly so. Please don't misunderstand my post. 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. By all means, protect the environment. But don't do it at the expense of one of the most maligned creatures on the planet.
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Chance Duncan
www.rivervalleyexotics.com

For further information on introduced species see Alan Burdick's book - "Out of Eden." You may wish to pay particular attention to the information on Guam and the introduction of the brown snake as it most closely parallels the ecosystem of HI.

I agree an excellent resource. Another is "Resolving Human/Wildlife Conflicts" by Michael Conover, it covers both (Guam and HI) and others around the US.
In Hawaii IT IS a real fear. It doesn't have alot to do with "I hate snakes" it has to do with the ecosystem. Hawaiians are a lot more forward thinking and in touch with what goes on on their little islands. The expense and spending time on this is important for them because they realize what happened with (I told you about Jacksoni and the mongoose) the Boiga in guam.
You can't put your mainland thinking on to the island mentality. It is truly a different country.

D

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

Hey Thomas, it's been quite awhile since I've seen that handle. How it going? Karl (Betz) and I talk about you often. He's been back here on the west coast for a while now. Great to see you pop in.

Eimon

Hi Eimon,

unfortunately, a general lack of time tends to keep me away from the forums these days. Tell Karl I said hello and that I'm looking forward to seeing the Boss & him this summer.

~TE
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Thomas Eimermacher
Department of Biological Sciences
Southeastern Louisiana University
Hammond, LA 70402