Invasive brown treesnakes (Boiga irregularis) move short distances and have small activity areas in a high prey environment.

ABSTRACT: Animal movements reflect temporal and spatial availability of resources as well as when, where, and how individuals access such resources. To test these relationships for a predatory reptile, we quantified the effects of prey abundance on the spatial ecology of invasive brown treesnakes (Boiga irregularis) on Guam. Five months after toxicant-mediated suppression of a brown treesnake population, we simultaneously used visual encounter surveys to generate relative rodent abundance and radiotelemetry of snakes to document movements of surviving snakes. After snake suppression, encounter rates for small mammals increased 22-fold and brown treesnakes had smaller mean daily movement distances (24 ± 13 m/day, [Formula: see text] ± SD) and activity areas (5.47 ± 5 ha) than all previous observation

SUBMITTER: Boback SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9325984 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature