Scientists drop 2000 mice by parachute in Guam to kill snakes

Scientists have dropped 2000 mice by parachutes pumped with painkillers in US territory of Guam to eradicate brown tree snake, which have caused losses worth millions of dollars in wildlife.

The rodents invasion, which were part of the fourth and biggest air assault, cost a staggering 8 million dollars and aims to save the exotic native birds that became snacks of the snakes, CNBC reported.

Tino Aguon, acting chief of the US Agriculture Department's wildlife resources office for Guam, told NBC station KUAM of Hagatna that every time there is a technique that is tested and shows promise, they jump on that bandwagon and promote it to help out and facilitate its implementation.

According to Interior Department , Andersen Air Force Base in Guam is regularly tormented by power failures caused when the snakes wriggle their way into electric substations, and costs 4 million dollars in annual repair costs and lost productivity.

The snakes are almost uniquely sensitive to acetaminophen, which is the active ingredient in the painkiller, and the mice are dropped from low altitudes flight in two pieces of cardboard and green tissue paper.

The mice in addition to the painkillers also have tiny data- transmitting radios attached to them.