brown tree snake, brown catsnake

Description:

A brown tree snake. This is the infamous species which has decimated bird and other wildlife as an invasive on Guam. But here it is on home ground. It is a mildly venomous, rear-fanged arboreal colubrid snake.

Habitat:

Found about 1 meter up a coconut tree (Cocos nucifera) in a large yard & garden next to a disturbed remnant patch of forest in the equatorial tropics of northern New Guinea. Anecdotally, the coconut tree is a preferred habitat.

Notes:

Ahhh, finally a live snake and not just a molted skin ( http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/953... )! I was cleaning up the base of a coconut tree, cutting away rotting branch bases and borer (beetle) detritus when I must have awakened the snake which is nocturnal. The first photos I took were in hand. The free snake was photographed after I released it.