Brown Treesnake Rapid Response Team
Brown Treesnake Rapid Response Team
The Brown Treesnake Rapid Response Team (RRT) evaluates snake sightings and quickly deploys when sightings are credible and match a brown treesnake. The RRT is an interagency partnership that cooperatively prevents the spread of brown treesnakes in the United States and territories.
If you believe you have seen a brown treesnake outside of Guam, please call 1-671-777-HISS (4477).
The U.S. Geological Survey in partnership with the Department of the Interior Office of Insular Affairs works with federal, state, territorial, and other partners to train and maintain an interagency coalition of individuals that make up the Brown Treesnake Rapid Response Team (RRT). Since the start of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Service interdiction program and the RRT, sightings and detections of brown treesnakes outside of Guam have decreased drastically.
Membership in the team is open to any cooperating agency, entity, or institution that has personnel available and funded to attend trainings. RRT members are trained to handle and identify brown treesnakes, conduct sighting interviews with the public, and implement a rapid response in the event of a credible sighting. Field training includes navigation skills, trap setup, and 25 hours of visual surveying to effectively recognize a snake in complex jungle habitat.
The Brown Treesnake RRT supports U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands, including the Hawaiian Islands, Guam, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Territory of American Samoa. In addition to providing trainings to prepare potential responders to a snake sighting, U.S. Geological Survey provides science support for early detection and rapid response initiatives that include:
- Maintenance of a continuously trained workforce who can quickly deploy when a credible sighting of brown treesnakes is reported.
- Expertise to evaluate the credibility of sighting reports.
- Assistance in designing and coordinating an effective surveillance design at a confirmed sighting location.
- Ability to evaluate the probability that snakes are absent from an area given the search method and intensity of effort.
- Delineation, spread, and description of a new population if a response results in a detection.
Questions about this program can be directed to the RRT hotline (1-671-777-HISS [4477]) or e-mail bts-rapidresponse@usgs.gov.
Developing and evaluating a point-of-use environmental DNA test for rapid field detection of highly invasive brown treesnakes
Guam power lines and brown treesnakes are an electric mix
A citizen science program for brown treesnake removal and native species recovery at a National Historical Park in Guam
Invasive Species We Study: Brown Treesnake
The Brown Treesnake Rapid Response Team (RRT) evaluates snake sightings and quickly deploys when sightings are credible and match a brown treesnake. The RRT is an interagency partnership that cooperatively prevents the spread of brown treesnakes in the United States and territories.
If you believe you have seen a brown treesnake outside of Guam, please call 1-671-777-HISS (4477).
The U.S. Geological Survey in partnership with the Department of the Interior Office of Insular Affairs works with federal, state, territorial, and other partners to train and maintain an interagency coalition of individuals that make up the Brown Treesnake Rapid Response Team (RRT). Since the start of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Service interdiction program and the RRT, sightings and detections of brown treesnakes outside of Guam have decreased drastically.
Membership in the team is open to any cooperating agency, entity, or institution that has personnel available and funded to attend trainings. RRT members are trained to handle and identify brown treesnakes, conduct sighting interviews with the public, and implement a rapid response in the event of a credible sighting. Field training includes navigation skills, trap setup, and 25 hours of visual surveying to effectively recognize a snake in complex jungle habitat.
The Brown Treesnake RRT supports U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands, including the Hawaiian Islands, Guam, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Territory of American Samoa. In addition to providing trainings to prepare potential responders to a snake sighting, U.S. Geological Survey provides science support for early detection and rapid response initiatives that include:
- Maintenance of a continuously trained workforce who can quickly deploy when a credible sighting of brown treesnakes is reported.
- Expertise to evaluate the credibility of sighting reports.
- Assistance in designing and coordinating an effective surveillance design at a confirmed sighting location.
- Ability to evaluate the probability that snakes are absent from an area given the search method and intensity of effort.
- Delineation, spread, and description of a new population if a response results in a detection.
Questions about this program can be directed to the RRT hotline (1-671-777-HISS [4477]) or e-mail bts-rapidresponse@usgs.gov.
Developing and evaluating a point-of-use environmental DNA test for rapid field detection of highly invasive brown treesnakes
Guam power lines and brown treesnakes are an electric mix
A citizen science program for brown treesnake removal and native species recovery at a National Historical Park in Guam