Scientists battle to save Guam kingfisher after snakes introduced

Nevertheless, work there is expected to play a key role in undoing one of the world’s worst conservation disasters: the accidental introduction of brown tree snakes to the Pacific island of Guam. The snakes’ arrival, at the end of the second world war, eventually wiped out huge numbers of indigenous birds, mammals, and lizards including the Guam kingfisher, the Guam rail, and the Guam flycatcher. The island is still home to more than two million brown tree snakes. The Guam kingfisher, unlike its British counterpart, does not eat fish but will turn to creatures including insects and lizards as part of its diet. “After that, we will have wild population to send birds back to Guam – once its snake problem has been resolved.”