As I am cleaning up past e-mails, and believe it was during a discussion when someone was trying to convince Mike Comet that he and Snakes could be on friendly terms some day. It still could happen, needs to be a VERY slow desensitization process in this extreme case! I have seen kids who at the beginning of the semester would barely come in the room and at the end of the semester, they were the same ones signing up to take one of our Snakes home.
So, someone above made the point about Snakes not even being present on some Islands years ago, and that is no longer the case. The Brown Snake on Guam is a good example and it has wreaked total havoc with indigenous Birds here. Below is another remote Island, but now some real footage of an invasive Rat killing a young Petrel. Sad to watch. Mike Nolan....see below http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henderson_Island_%28Pitcairn_Islands%29 Another video of a rat attacking a seabird: http://www.arkive.org/henderson-petrel/pterodroma-atrata/video-14.html. There was an unsuccessful attempt to remove rats on Henderson recently. Details can be googled. Those interested in the science might consult: Brooke MdeL, O\'Connell TC, Wingate D, Madeiros J, Hilton GM, Ratcliffe N (2010) Potential for rat predation to cause decline of the globally threatened Henderson petrel *Pterodroma atrata*: evidence from the field, stable isotopes and population modelling. Endang Species Res 11:47-59 On the Samoan rat video commentary "Given the strong, a priori rat indictment, it is also unclear whether any other finding would be acceptable to the investigators." Is this an opinion or *ex cathedra*? Do you have any actual reason to doubt the impartiality/professionalism of the researcher? Attacking grad students is not very impressive, especially if you don't read what they actually said: http://www.petridish.org/projects/saving-an-endangered-bird-the-mao: "To understand the impact of introduced predators we are putting nest cameras on morenests to determine if adult birds are also at risk. (Contrary to Matt's assertion, the proposal says nothing about cameras to document further rat predation on chicks although it is true that such coverage might refine estimates of incidence of such predation)" and "We are also trying to determine if other predators (like feral cats) are affecting young birds after they leave the nest by tracking chicks with transmitters. (Transmitters are different from cameras)" "It would be interesting to know. Knowing either way would not necessarily improve conservation efforts." The recovery plan http://www.sprep.org/att/IRC/eCOPIES/Countries/Samoa/53.pdf makes it clear that the species is disappearing in forest, as well as following forest destruction (p. 9). Rats or cats are suggested as a cause of loss in forest. As the plan suggests, there is now the capability to remove black rats over large areas and populations of Mao could be established on rat free islands. It appears abundantly clear in a real world sense that knowing the effect of rats would "improve conservation efforts" by defining choices. "I wonder if rats could learn to associate human activity with food sources." Rat association with humans seems to have started with the arrival of agriculture (cf http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0026357). Cats as commenseals with humans for rodent control go back almost ten thousand years in Egypt, suggesting rats learned the association a rather long time ago (JA Serpell - The domestic cat: The biology of its behaviour, 2000). There is a rather large literature that answers this question, albeit the question appears irrelevant here. I am sure no one would accuse Matt of bloviating academic logorrhea, but I for one would wish he would read more carefully and reflect more on what he says before he says it. 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