Brown tree snakes’ tropical range is populated by many smooth-barked trees, Savidge says, so the snakes may have developed this ability to reach bird nests that are otherwise out of reach.

The novel technique is great news for Guam’s brown tree snakes, bad news for the island’s nesting birds. By Sabrina Imbler In 2016, on the northern tip of Guam, two biologists, Tom Seibert and ...