Olive tree imports helped invasive snakes race across Ibiza, study finds

Olive tree imports helped invasive snakes race across Ibiza, study finds

Scientists have said a quiet ecological crisis has been unfolding in Ibiza for roughly two decades.  An invasive snake likely introduced in imported olive trees has spread across the island and contributed to native lizard losses in parts of the region. What happened? Scientists reconstructed how the horseshoe whip snake, or Hemorrhois hippocrepis, moved through Ibiza by examining more than 5,000 mapped observations of captured snakes and lizard…