Just lately a very persistent prowler has been making a nuisance of itself in homes and gardens at the eastern end of Paluma Village. The perpetrator is a rather lengthy Night Tiger Snake, otherwise known as a Brown Tree Snake or Doll’s-Eye Snake (Boiga irregularis).
It all started with the onset of the warm weather and the wet season. Lynda at the Manali House started noticing that the Night Tiger was making regular visits to her front verandah. It wasn’t long before Lynda noticed that her closely guarded nest of Shrike-Thrush chicks had been raided. The chicks disappeared overnight and Lynda found the slithery culprit curled up in a nearby shrub with some distinctive lumps in its belly. Put that down to nature I suppose, but then the Night Tiger started to take some liberties around the place……
Several times Lynda was woken to things that go bump in the night, only to find the Night Tiger in her back room, actively rifling through the contents of boxes and other things in the search for food – geckoes, cockroaches and frogs.
The next time Lynda encountered the snake it was in her lounge room, having a snooze under her favourite recliner. It was promptly relocated to the garden. Just last week, the Night Tiger was back in the lounge room, this time comfortably resting on the bookshelf. A late night call was made to the neighbours for some assistance in relocating the Night Tiger to the outdoors again. It was relocated to the forest at the eastern end of the village, but we are convinced it will be back, when it wants an easy feed of geckoes and tasty frogs or birds.
My own encounter with the Night Tiger was one evening upon returning from an outing. I walked up my drive-way only to find the ‘stalker’ outside my garage door. With some skilful wrangling via my gumboot, my umbrella and a cake tray, the snake was re-diverted back up the driveway. It took off, heading again for Lynda’s place. No doubt it was missing the cosy lounge-room and its recliner!
The Night Tiger or Brown Tree Snake is a nocturnal snake (as we have obviously discovered!). They are arboreal and can often be found in buildings and in tree hollows. They feed mainly on birds, eggs, frogs, geckoes, small mammals and other reptiles. These snakes have a large head with distinctive and protruding large eyes with vertical pupils (I am not getting close enough to look into its eyes!). The head is distinct from the narrow neck. They are usually brown in colour with darker cross bands on the back and sides (hence the common name of ‘Night Tiger’). Specimens in northern Australia tend to have bold reddish bands with a creamy to orange belly. This snake can grow up to 2m in length. They are not usually considered dangerous, but they are venomous.
Text by Michele Bird with Photos by Paul Venn, Lynda Radbone and Michele Bird. Noting that the quality of our photos is not great, given the night time conditions and in my own case, the shaking hands and rapidly beating heart!
An entertaining and informative article. Michele. Thank you to you, Lynda and Paul for sharing your encounters with the intruder.