Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Who's herped there? I've found two of the obligatory Boiga on the island, but this time I will actually have a combined 24 hours of sleepless leisure to do my herp thing. The Brown Tree Snakes are a standard. Why can I can find two of them in a ~30 minute period of roadcruising in December...
I post this after reading a lot of anecdotes about the Brown Tree Snakes on Guam. It's funny that some people find them to be uncommon, because they have no clue about how to find them. Oh well, I'm an equal idiot when it comes to birds of the Mariannas.
Does anyone know of anyone, on Guam, that enjoys the herps, regardless of the birds?
Shane
-----
Shane's Herp Lifelist
http://www.geocities.com/shane77@sbcglobal.net/my_page.html

>>Who's herped there?

www.mcmartinville.com/reptiles/trips/guam/index.htm

Not that I was specifically looking for herps, though. I actually would've liked to find Boiga too, but didn't have the resources available at the time to do a proper search.

they have no clue about how to find them. Oh well, I'm an equal idiot when it comes to birds of the Mariannas.

They're inside the brown tree snakes!

-----
Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet

"They're inside the brown tree snakes!"

LOL. Yeah, I'd probably have more luck finding some of the birds by dissecting some Boiga. However, I've read that they've depleted the bird pops so badly in some areas that the result is much smaller avg. sizes than those encountered 20 years ago.
If you ever make it back to Andersen, take the road that runs just south of rwy 00? and goes to the beach recreation area. As long as the weather isn't too harsh (rare), I imagine you'll find them with ease.
This time I'm hoping to find some of the Mangrove Monitors, but since I won't have time to explore areas for myself (two overnight layovers), I'm in bad need of some solid locality info. If I can't find any help, then I'll be kicking myself for choosing a not so direct flight to/from Japan.
Shane
-----
Shane's Herp Lifelist
http://www.geocities.com/shane77@sbcglobal.net/my_page.html

If you want to see a few native herps and birds of Guam, you need to go to Cocos Island, off Merizo (about 45 minutes' drive south of Won Pat Int'l airport). It's a little (100 acres or so) atoll-like islet a few miles offshore. There's a ferry. You can sleep on the beach over there (or pay the tourist prices at the resort). The bugs can be bad, especially in the woods. The rats are spectacular, but they're not as aggressive as the bugs.

There are still Gehyra oceanica, Emoia (atrocostata and others), Perochirus, Cryptoblepharus, etc that have been wholly or essentially eliminated from Guam, presumably by the snake.

Also you can see Micronesian starlings, White terns, fruit doves, and others that are similarly totally or effectively gone from Guam proper.

Cocos doesn't yet have the snake. Or at least, it isn't at a detectable density there yet. (The volume of traffic there to service the resort makes it almost inevitable). If you go, you'll be amazed how many rats you see - evidently they're not as hard on the native vertebrates as the snake, if you can believe it.

Cheers,
Jimi Gragg

PS I did graduate research on the snake on Guam - that's why I know this otherwise-useless trivia