Brown tree snakes, Boiga irregularis, are one of Guam’s most successful – and devastating – invasive species.

That’s prompted an international team of scientists, led by the University of Queensland, to study what’s made the species so successful. And their venom and traveling ability is the key, according to research published this month in the Journal of Molecular Evolution.

With a venom that’s 100 times more toxic to birds than mammals, brown tree snakes have devastated Guam’s feat