They came; they saw; they conquered.
They found comfort in an alien world.
Native species were their favoured food.
Birdsong ceased to echo in the wood.
They hung from trees and utility poles.
Slithered through barns, burrows, holes,
and homes in search of chicken and mice.
From a novelty, they became a menace.
From New Guinea, unnoticed they came
In the idyllic Guam, they caused mayhem.
The brown tree snakes were hard to contain.
They flourished in a confounded terrain.
Man's apathy sowed the seed of disaster.
A snake exposed man's penchant to bluster.
Forget U.F.Os, E.Ts and alien invasions.
Stop meddling with Nature's frangible equations.
Author notes
The brown tree snakes were supposed to have reached Guam( a little island in the Western pacific ocean), through army cargo trucks from New Guinea. They were only mildly venomous; nevertheless, in the absence of natural predators, they multiplied at an alarming rate. Many native birds, lizards and small mammals almost became extinct. After depleting the wild life, the snakes raided houses for small pets, chicken etc, and even tried to eat small infants. Luckily, the infants were too large for them to swallow. At its peak, the density of snakes was 5,000-10,000 per sq.km. Now, (despite efforts to curb their population) their density is 2000 snakes for every sq.km. Some species may seem harmless and beautiful; nevertheless, they cause much havoc in an alien ecosystem. Man is instrumental in introducing many such invasive species in other parts of the world. One such invasive species that comes to my mind, is Parthenium, a weed that came, with PL-480 food grain exports from U.S., to India in the late sixties. The stubborn weed has entrenched itself firmly in the Indian landscape and is a headache for farmers and gardeners.
Written July 28th, 2005
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1 - 6 of 6
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you just rocked me with this poem. in my real life i am getting ready to start my phd in ecology, studying such interactions as exotics and invasives. so yes, awesome awesome work. much love, robin
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Wow. That is remarkable. A very smart poem, very wise info being put into that marvelous style you have.
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you indian too! i feel indian people have a lot of fire in them which comes out powerfully as we write..
enjoyed reading it, powerful and yet simple.
~kunjal. -
USA is so particular about anyone bringing plants or fruit etc to their country... they have sniffle dogs at the airport... because they don't want their country to endure man made "Foot and Mouth" disease...
Also recently while adressing faming issues in Europe, the French Prime minister said, "UK's only contribution to the farming is "Mad cow disease"... that comment ruffled many feathers politically... I agree, we can only blame human race for interfering with the nature... thanx for enlightening us with the facts about "brown tree snakes" and "Parthenium weed" in beutifully penned verse...
mina
Edited on Jul 31, 5:18 because 'typo'. -
a good write
happy to read. The words are pwerful. -
Hmmm... the introduction of rabbits in Australia comes to mind too. I'm sure there are many more examples of mans meddling causing disaster.
Once again an interesting and informative write. I hadn't realised the brown snakes had multiplied so.. or that they were trying to eat babies!
Kyla
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