US gets tough on Guam's tree snakes
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems...0/s1219453.htm
The United States Senate has passed a Bill authorising the spending of $US77 million to eradicate the brown tree snake from Guam and Hawaii.
The passing of the Bill is a victory for Guam's Department of Agriculture which has mounted a long-term campaign to combat the introduced snake which has wiped out at least 12 of Guam's native bird species.
The original Bill that passed through the United States House of Representatives would have set aside $US104 million for the eradication campaign but the Senate cut back the allocation.
The brown tree snake is native to northern Australia, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands and is believed to have been introduced to Guam in the 1940s from Manus Island in PNG where the US military had a major base during World War II.
The brown tree snake had no natural predator on Guam and spread quickly.
It is now estimated there are 1,300 brown tree snakes per square mile on Guam.
Apart from devastating local wildlife, the snakes cause on average a power cut every three days on Guam by climbing up power poles and into transformers.
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