MEXICO CITY (AP) — A species of snake that had been "lost" for almost 80 years has been re-discovered on a remote Mexican island. 
 
 According to a study published in the PLOS ONE scientific journal, the Clarion nightsnake was found again on one of the Revillagigedo Islands, more than 400 miles (650 kilometers) off Mexico's Pacific coast. 
 
 The original, and until recently the only, spotting of the species was made by American naturalist William Beebe in a 1936 visit to Clarion, one of the four Revillagigedo Islands. He returned with one snake preserved in a glass jar. 
 
 Subsequent visits failed to find more nightsnakes, and no further sightings were reported over the years from the island, which is inhabited only by a small detachment of Mexican marines. The existing dead sample was assumed to be a labelling error and the snake was largely struck from taxonomic registries. 
 
 But Daniel Mulcahy, a researcher for the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, suspected it might still exist. He and Juan Martinez Gomez of Mexico's Ecology Institute set out to find it. 
 
 Martinez Gomez, an expert on the Revillagigedo Islands, noted the islands change a lot from season to season, so they timed the expedition last May to replicate Beebe's steps as they looked for the snake, which blends in with the island's rock formations and is largely active at night. And they used Beebe's original field notes as a guide. 
 
 "Basically, following those directions, we essentially put ourselves in his place," Martinez Gomez said. 
 
 One of his graduate students, Juan Alberto Cervantes, was the first to spot one of the snakes for the first time since 1936. 
 
 The researchers performed DNA analysis to establish the long, dark spotted snake as its own species and see where it had come from. The tests showed it is most closely related to snakes from Mexico's Sonora-Sinaloa coast more than 500 miles (800 kilometers) away. Martinez Gomez said the snake's ancestors may have made the trip from the mainland on a tree trunk felled by a storm and washed out to sea. 
 
 The National Museum of Natural History said Mulcahy "uncovered the controversy surrounding the inclusion of this snake in the scientific record, and found that it appears to be the only species ever to be discarded due to a presumed locality error." 
 
 Patricia Escalante, a biologist who curates bird collections at Mexico's National Autonomous University and who was not involved in the snake project, said the re-discovery of the Clarion nightsnake was "very interesting" and significant because of the fragility of island ecosystems. 
 
 One inhabitant of the Revillagigedo Islands, the Socorro dove, went extinct in its natural habitat sometime in the 1970s. But live specimens had been taken off the islands in the 1920s, and their descendants were recently re-introduced to the islands. ||||| Image copyright Daniel Mulcahy Image caption The Clarion Nightsnake has a distinctive pattern of spots Photo: Daniel Mulcahy 
 
 A lost species of snake that eluded scientists for nearly 80 years has been rediscovered in Mexico, a US museum says. 
 
 The Clarion Nightsnake was found on the Pacific island of Clarion in Mexico by a researcher from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. 
 
 The snake was first discovered in 1936 by naturalist William Beebe. 
 
 Although never declared extinct, it was struck from the record after scientists were unable to rediscover it. 
 
 The museum said that researcher Daniel Mulcahy, working with an expert from a Mexican institute, carried out an expedition to Clarion Island where their team identified 11 snakes matching Beebe's description. 
 
 DNA tests confirmed that the Clarion Nightsnake was indeed genetically distinct from others found in mainland Mexico. 
 
 The museum said the snake species is found exclusively on the island and could have remained unknown to science if not for the team's efforts. It is now recognised as a full species. 
 
 "The rediscovery of the Clarion Nightsnake is an incredible story of how scientists rely on historical data and museum collections to solve modern-day mysteries about biodiversity in the world we live in," Mr Mulcahy said in a museum statement. 
 
 "Proper identification is the first step toward conserving this snake, and we plan to continue monitoring this species to learn more about the role it plays in the delicate Clarion Island ecosystem." ||||| In this photo taken on Feb. 5, 2013, U.S. Department of Agriculture wildlife specialist Tony Salas holds a Brown Tree Snake outside his office on Andersen Air Force Base on the island of Guam. The U.S.... (Associated Press) 
 
 Dead mice laced with painkillers are about to rain down on Guam's jungle canopy. They are scientists' prescription for a headache that has caused the tiny U.S. territory misery for more than 60 years: the brown tree snake. 
 
 Most of Guam's native bird species are extinct because of the snake, which reached the island's thick jungles by hitching rides from the South Pacific on U.S. military ships shortly after World War II. There may be 2 million of the reptiles on Guam now, decimating wildlife, biting residents and even knocking out electricity by slithering onto power lines. 
 
 More than 3,000 miles away, environmental officials in Hawaii have long feared a similar invasion _ which in their case likely would be a "snakes on a plane" scenario. That would cost the state many vulnerable species and billions of dollars, but the risk will fall if Guam's air-drop strategy succeeds. 
 
 "We are taking this to a new phase," said Daniel Vice, assistant state director of U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services in Hawaii, Guam, and the Pacific Islands. "There really is no other place in the world with a snake problem like Guam." 
 
 Brown tree snakes are generally a few feet (1 meter) long but can grow to be more than 10 feet (3 meters) in length. Most of Guam's native birds were defenseless against the nocturnal, tree-based predators, and within a few decades of the reptile's arrival, nearly all of them were wiped out. 
 
 The snakes can also climb power poles and wires, causing blackouts, or slither into homes and bite people, including babies; they use venom on their prey but it is not lethal to humans. 
 
 The infestation and the toll it has taken on native wildlife have tarnished Guam's image as a tourism haven, though the snakes are rarely seen outside their jungle habitat. 
 
 The solution to this headache, fittingly enough, is acetaminophen, the active ingredient in painkillers including Tylenol. 
 
 The strategy takes advantage of the snake's two big weaknesses. Unlike most snakes, brown tree snakes are happy to eat prey they didn't kill themselves, and they are highly vulnerable to acetaminophen, which is harmless to humans. 
 
 The upcoming mice drop is targeted to hit snakes near Guam's sprawling Andersen Air Force Base, which is surrounded by heavy foliage and if compromised would offer the snakes a potential ticket off the island. Using helicopters, the dead neonatal mice will be dropped by hand, one by one. 
 
 U.S. government scientists have been perfecting the mice-drop strategy for more than a decade with support from the Department of Defense and the Department of the Interior. 
 
 To keep the mice bait from dropping all the way to the ground, where it could be eaten by other animals or attract insects as they rot, researchers have developed a flotation device with streamers designed to catch in the branches of the forest foliage, where the snakes live and feed. 
 
 Experts say the impact on other species will be minimal, particularly since the snakes have themselves wiped out the birds that might have been most at risk. 
 
 "One concern was that crows may eat mice with the toxicant," said William Pitt, of the U.S. National Wildlife Research Center's Hawaii Field Station. "However, there are no longer wild crows on Guam. We will continue to refine methods to increase efficiency and limit any potential non-target hazards." 
 
 The mouse drop is set to start in April or May. 
 
 Vice said the goal is not to eradicate the snakes, but to control and contain them. Just as the snakes found their way to Guam, they could stow away on a ship, or more likely the cargo hold of an airplane, and begin breeding on other islands around the Pacific or even the U.S. West Coast. 
 
 That "snakes on a plane" scenario has officials in Hawaii on edge. The islands of Hawaii, like Guam, lack the predators that could keep a brown tree snake population in check. 
 
 Native Hawaiian birds "literally don't know what to do when they see a snake coming," said Christy Martin, a spokeswoman for the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, a partnership of Hawaii government agencies and private organizations. 
 
 A 2010 study conducted by the National Wildlife Research Center found brown tree snakes would cause between $593 million and $2.14 billion in economic damage each year if they became established in Hawaii like they are on Guam. Power outages would cause the most damage, followed by a projected decline in tourism. The cost of treating snake bites would account for a small share. 
 
 "Once we get snakes here, we're never going to be able to fix the situation," Martin said. 
 
 Though the snakes are native to Australia and Papua New Guinea, Guam is much closer to Hawaii and its snake population is much more dense, meaning it is the primary threat for snake stowaways. 
 
 So far, Guam's containment seems to be working. Only a few brown tree snakes have ever been found in Hawaii, and none over the past 17 years. 
 
 "If we continue doing what we are doing, the chance of success is very high," Vice said. "If what we are doing stops, I think the possibility of the snakes getting to Hawaii is inevitable." 
 
 ___ 
 
 AP writer Audrey McAvoy contributed to this report from Honolulu, Hawaii.
– The Clarion nightsnake is hard to spot, so hard to spot that for decades, the only sighting of the species native to one of Mexico's Revillagigedo Islands—the original sighting—was assumed to be a mistake. A joint US-Mexico team, however, managed to rediscover the species found by American naturalist William Beebe in 1936 by using his original field notes to retrace his steps and search for the nocturnal snake, which blends in with the island's rock formations, the AP reports. The expedition found 11 of the snakes, and DNA tests confirmed that the Clarion Island snake is a unique species, reports the BBC. The snake is related to snakes found on part of the Mexican coast more than 500 miles away, and researchers believe its ancestors may have arrived on a tree trunk washed out to sea long ago. Beebe returned from a visit to the island, located 400-plus miles off Mexico's Pacific coast, nearly 80 years ago with a snake preserved in a jar, but his sample had long been considered a labeling error and his find was largely struck from taxonomic registries. The National Museum of Natural History praised the team's work, describing the snake as the "only species ever to be discarded due to a presumed locality error." The rediscovery "is an incredible story of how scientists rely on historical data and museum collections to solve modern-day mysteries about biodiversity in the world we live in," the museum said in a statement.