Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Washington
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Washington Project


Evaluating and mitigating the effects of brown treesnakes on Guam's birds

February 2019 - January 2023


Personnel

Participating Agencies

  • Navy, Joint Region Marianas

The brown treesnake is an invasive species on the island of Guam and is responsible for the local extinction of much of Guam’s avifauna. Control of brown treesnakes is critical to conservation of the remaining native fauna and to the eventual reintroduction of many native species. Monitoring of brown treesnake populations will be key to informing control and reintroduction activities. Refinement of field and statistical methodologies is needed to provide information on brown treesnake populations, and this information needs to be fit within system models to inform both control and reintroduction activities. The U.S. Geological Survey Washington Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit plans to undertake a multi-year collaboration with the U.S. Navy on Guam, in addition to the U.S. Geological Survey Fort Collins Science Center, and U.S. Department of Agriculture APHIS Wildlife Services, to develop methods for monitoring brown treesnakes and to fit that information within management models to inform both brown treeesnake control activities and reintroduction of native fauna.

Research Publications Publication Date
Amburgey SM, AA Yackel Adams, B Gardner, NJ Hostetter, SR Siers, BT McClintock, and SJ Converse. 2021. Validation of camera trap-based abundance estimators for unmarked populations. Ecological Applications 31: e02410. | Abstract October 2021
Presentations Presentation Date
Amburgey SM, AA Yackel Adams, B Gardner, and SJ Converse. 2019. Assessing spatial capture-recapture models for unmarked individuals when estimating density of invasive brown treesnakes on Guam. American Fisheries Society & The Wildlife Society Joint Conference, Reno, Nevada. 29 September - 3 October. September 2019
Amburgey SM, AA Yackel Adams, B Gardner, and SJ Converse. 2019. Assessing the use of camera trapping for estimation of abundance of invasive brown treesnakes on Guam. Brown Treesnake Technical Working Group Meeting, Garapan, Saipan. 20-21 November. November 2019
Amburgey SM, AA Yackel Adams, B Gardner, B Lardner, AJ Knox, and SJ Converse. 2021. An evaluation of tools for increasing brown treesnake detection probabilities to enhance early detection and rapid response. Marianas Terrestrial Conservation Conference. Virtual. June 2021
Amburgey SM, AA Yackel Adams, B Gardner, N Hostetter, BT McClintock, S Siers, and SJ Converse. 2020. The challenges of using camera trapping for abundance estimation of invasive herpetofauna. The Wildlife Society Annual Conference, Online. 27 Sept - 1 Oct. September 2020
Amburgey SM, AA Yackel Adams, B Gardner, NJ Hostetter, BT McClintock, S Siers, and SJ Converse. 2020. The challenges of using camera trapping for abundance estimation of invasive herpetofauna. Brown Treesnake Technical Working Group, Online. 9 Nov - 19 Nov. November 2020
Amburgey SM, AA Yackel-Adams, B Gardner, and SJ Converse. 2020. Camera traps for early detection and rapid response and management of an invasive reptile. World Congress of Herpetology, Dunedin, New Zealand. 5-10 January. January 2020
Prakash A*, SM Amburgey*, AA Yackel Adams, SR Siers, and SJ Converse. 2021. Engineering for wildlife: collaborative generation of improved monitoring platforms. The Wildlife Society Annual Meeting. Virtual. *Co-presenters November 2021
Sipe HA, EH Paxton, AA Yackel Adams, MA Hall, ND Holmes, M Kastner, S Mullin, R Reed, HS Rogers, TM Summers, and SJ Converse. 2020. Paradise sought: the collaborative path to restoring Guam’s vertebrates. Brown Treesnake Technical Working Group, Online. 9 Nov - 19 Nov. November 2020
Sipe HA, EH Paxton, AA Yackel Adams, MA Hall, ND Holmes, M Kastner, S Mullin, WC Pitt, R Reed, HS Rogers, TM Summers, and SJ Converse. 2021. Paradise sought: the collaborative path to restoring Guam’s vertebrates. Marianas Terrestrial Conservation Conference, Online. 9 June - 17 June. June 2021