I am sure you have been wondering about the various creatures that we may run into on a regular basis here on island. I wanted to share some of those with you but let me start with a fun little anecdote.
Conveniently, we have an open field across the street from our house, so that has become our "potty" field for the dogs. One problem with going out at night with the dogs is that is also when the toads come out. They are always out at night and sometimes early in the morning too. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal except that these toads are poisonous and they secrete this poison when attacked. Of course Bubbles LOVES to chase them!! So we learned very quickly that we need to be careful when going out at night.
Unfortunately they blend in well with the grass and sometimes we don't see one until after Bubbles has pounced on it. Last week she not only pounced on one but actually bit it before I realized the toad was there. The vet had warned us about the toads already, so I knew that I had to wash her mouth out as quickly as possible. As I was dragging her across the street back into our yard, I noticed that she had started foaming at the mouth!!
I had to hold her under the hose spigot and pry her mouth open to make sure the water got in. Luckily she doesn't weigh too much and didn't fight me a whole lot although I am sure she thought I was trying to drown her! I made her go through three rounds of waterboarding before I felt like her mouth was thoroughly rinsed out! Thankfully she doesn't seem to have been affected by it, so I guess I got her rinsed out fast enough. Of course she hasn't learned her lesson...she still really wants to chase the toads! I just make sure to keep her on a short leash when we go out at night now.
So....cane toads are one creature we have run into a lot!
Now the brown tree snake is a creature that I read about before moving to Guam and thought that they were a pest. Turns out that they aren't as prevalent as Wikipedia would have us believe. They are poisonous but not deadly to adult humans. They can be dangerous for children but they are nocturnal and the only ones we have seen so far are dead ones. I am fine with that!
Geckos are all over here on Guam and actually a welcome addition to help get rid of the bugs!! We have found a few in the house and although we don't have bugs in the house, they are welcome to stay as far as I am concerned. I like the cute chirping sounds they make. We had them in Belize on our Honeymoon too!
Another lizard we have seen when hiking is the skink. They are about the same size as a common lizard and seem to be harmless but come in a variety of colors!
The yellow monitor is a lizard that we saw once and it was the first week we were on island. They move fast!!! It was crawling through a grassy field as we were driving by and we stopped to check it out. By the time I dug my camera out, it had run back through the grass to the bushes to hide! Unfortunately I haven't seen one since, I hope we do find another one. They are really neat looking lizards!! They can grow up to 8 feet long but the one we saw was about 4 feet long which is about average.
A spider that we have seen a lot when hiking turns out to be harmless (thankfully). I can't remember what the general name for it is but the female is the larger of the two. In the picture below, the adult male is next to the adult female, so you can see the difference in size. The female can be up to 7cm while the male only gets to about 2 cm long. They are prolific with spinning their webs among the trees in the "jungle" areas.
A spider that we have seen once (and that was enough) is the Huntsman spider. They are big and can be aggressive. If they bite you, it can be harmful but not deadly. We saw one of these at a bar we went to within our first week of moving here. I watched that thing all through dinner because I was afraid to take my eyes off in case it moved towards us!! I found this lovely picture to give you an idea of how big they are!!
Another creature we have seen are crabs. You are familiar with hermit crabs, which they have here. But not many have heard of the coconut crab. They are called that because they can actually open a coconut and eat it! These guys are strong and large! I have only seen one in a cage at one of the festivals. They have a coconut crab festival where they dump barrels of them out into a field and people run around trying to catch them. We did not make it to that festival this year...maybe next year!
Last but not least is the carabao (pronounced care-a-bow, not care-a-boo). These are not as common as they used to be. The locals used to use these for farming. I have seen two on the island that looked like they were still used for that purpose. The Chamorro Village has one every Wednesday night for kids to ride. Other than that, there are statues of them all over the island in various colors. Officially or unofficially I think it's the national mascot for Guam.
That is all for now!! I hope you are enjoying your Summer!
