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Invasive Species “Brown Tree Snake”
Invasive species are known as non-native to the ecosystem, causing harmful effects upon environment, economy and human health. Invasive species include plants, animals or other microbes. Some introduces species are identified as an organism which normally occur to cause the human activity. Such introduced species can compete with and cause harms for the native species. But it is not necessary that all introduced species or non-native species may be invasive species (General Information About Invasive Species, 2011).
Invasive species tend to grow rapidly and spread easily, and frequently out-compete native species for space and resources (General Information About Invasive Species, 2011).
All living organisms (native & non-native species in a ecosystem) want someplace for living, growing and reproducing. Non-native or introduced species do not adjust in the new environment, so they mostly are unable to be established. If they find the new environment more favorable for their growth, adjustment with the native inhabitants, they nurture in harmony but most of the non-native or introduced species cause disorder in the ecosystems by their invasion, so these are also known as invasive species (What Makes a Species Invasive, 2006).
Once an introduced species becomes established, meaning it has begun to reproduce in the wild, its “invasiveness” depends partly on the characteristics of the habitat being invaded. But invasiveness also depends on how well the introduced organism adapts to its new environment (What Makes a Species Invasive, 2006).
The non-native or invasive species have some biotic limitations (natural predators or diseases) as they have to compete with its native environment. The invasive species tend to grow in such vacant or wild places which can be utilized by the newcomers. The vacant or wild places lack of diversity of species, that’s why they are much prone to be disturbed by fire, building or other farming means of invasion (What Makes a Species Invasive, 2006).
The brown tree snake can be identified by having vertical pupils, brownish or greenish color with some cross-band blots, big head and rear fangs. There is wider range of color variation of the brown tree snake according to the specific localities. The brown tree snake is about 18 at birth time which grow upto 3 inches in the first year while adults can grow about 8 with 5 Ibs of weight (Patrick, 2001).
The brown tree snake was identified as invasive to Guam in the 1950s which continues its growth in the entire island. Gradually, the brown tree snake has become conspicuously established in Guam due to the lack of natural population controls and abundance of susceptible victims on the island (Patrick, 2001).
Guam is such a small, remote island; there are not only limited ways for prey to escape predation, but an inability for predators of the brown tree snake to enter. Furthermore, the non-seasonal climate of Guam, favorable for animal growth and reproduction, allows the brown tree snake to reproduce year-round (Patrick, 2001).
Recently, there are approximately 12,000-15,000 snakes per square mile on Guam due to the rapid rate of reproduction of the brown tree snake which tend to reproduce at age of 3 years old by dropping almost 12 eggs once a year in the vacant caves, hollow trees and some other protected niches. The most common and natural predators of the brown tree snake are monitor lizards, domestic birds, rats, geckos and some other vertebrates (Patrick, 2001).
Works Cited
“General Information About Invasive Species”, nationalatlas.gov, National Atlas of the United States®, last modified on 24 January, 2011, Web. 8 April , 2011.
<http://www.nationalatlas.gov/articles/biology/a_invasive.html>
“What Makes a Species Invasive”, arizona.edu, last updated, 5 December, 2006, Web. 7 April, 2011.
<http://alic.arid.arizona.edu/invasive/sub2/p3.shtml>
Patrick, Lisa (2001). Introduced Species Summary Project, Brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis), columbia.edu, last modified on 11 October, 2001, Web. 5 April, 2011.
<http://www.columbia.edu/itc/cerc/danoff-burg/invasion_bio/inv_spp_summ/boiga_irregularis.html>
