His lab has several brown tree snakes, a notoriously invasive species not commonly found in American herpetology collections. Brown tree snakes have decimated wild bird populations in places like the American territory of Guam, where they are believed to have stowed away on planes or cargo ships after World War II. Wildlife officials worldwide are taking extreme steps to prevent the tree snakes from invading new territory as stowaways.



“They trap them in Guam. But their numbers are so staggering that it’s just a finger in the dam,” Jayne said. “The biggest priority is to make sure they don’t get introduced anywhere else. One of the more promising preventive measures is to train dogs to sniff them out in cargo areas.”



Jayne used a snake hook to remove a 5-foot-long brown tree snake from its glass enclosure. The rear-fanged snakes are mildly venomous but pose little threat to people. The snake, which is actually olive-colored, was solid, strong and shockingly big for an arboreal animal. Jayne’s locomotion studies have found that tree snakes can reach branches as far as 90 percent the length of their bodies. And they can climb virtually anything.



“There’s a key muscle that supports the back of snakes like boa constrictors that typically spans about 14 vertebrae. But in the brown tree snake, that same muscle spans 30 vertebrae,” Jayne said. “That is advantageous for supporting their weight while crossing gaps.”



He let the snake dangle from one hand and watched as its prehensile tail wrapped around his wrist. Undeterred, the snake began to explore its vertical world, extending its body parallel to the ground to try to reach countertops.



It was easy to see how a snake so nimble and big could wreak havoc on an ecosystem that evolved without natural defenses to climbing snakes. Wildlife officials have a keen interest in understanding their abilities, Jayne said.



“Once you figure out what they can do, you can try to exploit what they can’t do,” he said.



Jayne’s lifelong interest in snakes has given science keen insights into many previously undocumented behaviors. He studied crab-eating snakes in Malaysia and is testing the acuity of snake vision in his own makeshift optical lab at UC.



“Brown tree snakes are really good at stretching out. But the funny thing is the boas and pythons are pretty darned good, too, because they’re so muscular. They use brute force while the other snakes finesse it,” Jayne said. “There are statistically significant differences in the movement of these species, but it’s a lot less than I expected.”



