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Animals of Guam

For all of the thriving plant life and the wealth of natural products that made Guam the traditional romantic, self-sustaining paradise it was before its invasion by Western explorers, Guam has a singularly small range of animal life. There are no indigenous quadrupeds on the island, and the only prehistoric mammals that naturalists have turned up are two species of native bats.

One of these two species is the large fruit-eating bat (the flying fox), called the fanihi by the Chamorros. In its daylight foraging, besides the fragrant fruit of the screw pine, it seeks several other cultivated and wild fruits (breadfruit drupes, guavas, custard apples, etc.) and has often been a source of real pestilence to the diligent, hard-pressed farmers who have been forced to keep constant vigil at harvest time against its destructiveness. However, its taste for these edible fruits has caused it to spread the seeds over the island. When possible, the fruit bat is caught, caged, fattened, and then eaten. Its fur emits a faintly musty odor, but its flesh does not hold this scent, and is a favorite delicacy of the Chamorros, although rather tough.

The other species of bat, a much smaller insect-eating bat called the payésyes in Chamorro, ventures forth at twilight to forage for food among the hordes of insects in the mountain areas and along the coast. It flutters about much like the common bat, American but in daylight hours it remains in secluded ruins or volcanic hillside caves and may be found there clinging in its sleep to the damp walls of deserted buildings or rough caves. According to Safford, it bears a resemblance to the tropical Samoan bat and seems to possess identical habits.

RODENTS

Rats and mice abound in Guam, despite post-World War II efforts to eradicate them. At one time the rat populace subsisted entirely on seasonal crops such as maize, cacao, and young coconuts, often ascending the trees and making nests in the heart of the palm. Nowadays, with the remnants of imported food more easily accessible in a frequently uncovered state, the rat is the plague of garbage dumps, dooryards, public kitchens, warehouses and restaurants. The innocuous mouse, seldom seen, is rarely responsible for damage and contents itself with living in unused drawers and boxes in habitable buildings.

ISLAND DEER

Before World War II, wild deer abounded in the hill country, causing great damage to tender young crops in the interior. The deer was supposedly brought to Guam by Don Mariano Tobias, an early Spanish governor of Guam, sometime between 1771 and 1774, probably with the idea that it would provide a handy source of food supply. Its flesh does have a fine venison flavor, and for a long time following its introduction it was a favorite meat staple of the islanders. At one period deer were so numerous that during their rutting season the strident cries of ardent bucks were heard at night near almost every island village, especially when the tropical moon hung low and full over the sea. Today the deer have been almost hunted out of existence; war decimated their number when they were sought as one of the few sources of fresh meat. But occasionally even now on passage through the southern mountains a deer will be flushed in the dense jungle thickets and go bounding down a hillside—and a lucky hunter may be able to take it in its flight. It seems logical, however, that deer hunting will one day be outlawed. Perhaps this will occur before the tawny, nimble animals become extinct.

DOMESTIC ANIMALS

Nearly all of the common domestic animals—cattle, horses, water buffalo (carabao), mules, pigs, goats, chickens, cats and dogs—have been introduced into Guam since the time of Magellan. The Filipino carabao, among the work animals, has proven most adaptable, partially because it did not have to undergo a change of climate. Its natural slowness, its strength and docility, make it a good worker, and the tropical humidity and benign temperature of Guam provide it with the moist comfort it must have to survive. Without water over its back and the chance to wallow in a warm mudhole or tepid stream, the carabao will rapidly sicken with fever, run amuck, and eventually die.

Guam cattle are not exceptional in quality, and even since the last war, with the careful selection of imports to improve modern dairy strains on Guam, the domestic propagation has not produced any really first-rate offspring. There has been talk of breeding the best American domestic strains with heat-resistant types from India, but it will probably be a long time before such a type will be sent to Guam. And in the meantime, cattle produce indifferent milk and meat.

A few wild hogs roam the inaccessible places of the island on the inner hillside jungles; they are considered tasty additions to the native diet, although they are as elusive to track down as the island deer. In some cases dogs and cats have gone wild, but with the present increased population and the abundance of half-eaten food, dogs and cats have found it wiser to live in and about the camps and villages of the island and to accept the plentiful handouts they now come by so easily. They seldom go wild today and no longer forage at night like the deer.

Chickens are kept by most Chamorro families and are a food staple. Specially groomed fighting cocks are the prized possession of many islanders, particularly of the post-war Filipino contingent who work under contract for private and government construction companies. On any Sunday afternoon cockfights may be held legally in many parts of the island, taxed, sponsored and protected by island law. In its way, cockfighting is to the Chamorros what the corrida is to the Spaniards, and one of the most colorful experiences on the island is attendance at one of these fight sessions.

SAFFORD'S LIST OF GUAM BIRDS

Guam's loveliest bird is the rose-crowned fruit dove. Its plumage is of a general green tone, and its head is capped rose-purple. The lower surface of its body shades from orange to yellow and into purple on the breast. The sexes do not differ greatly within this color range. When the fruit dove releases its typical dovelike crooning note it presses its bill against its breasts and swells the back of its neck in the typical manner of the familiar park pigeon. In captivity, kept in bamboo cages as they were by the aborigines, the dove cries plaintively all night long, but it does make a good pet and will take readily to a hand-fed diet of cestrum, orange berries, and the fruit of the ilangilang, showing its delicacy of taste.

Another fruit dove (Phelogoenas xanthonura) of less striking appearance is the red-brown colored bird; the male has a white throat and olive-green reflections. Altogether, Guam has several doves, all small, singularly marked, and quite gregarious.

The most remarkable bird in the Marianas is the megapode, named polio del monte by the natives. This bird is apparently quite similar to the megapode of the southern Palau Islands. The Australian jungle fowl or mound builder is also of the same genus. The habits of the Marianas megapode include heaping up a mound of earth with its thick, powerful feet, topping this with a nest of decaying leaves and debris, and then laying its eggs there. It is oddly marked with a reddish bald spot on the crown of its head, yellow legs and beak. Because of its rather clumsy shape it flies heavily. Not seen in Guam for a good many years, this bird still inhabits the less trafficked jungles of Rota and Agrihan and is noted there occasionally.

Guam has only one true bird of prey—a short-eared owl (Asio acciptrinius) called momo by the natives. This is an almost legendary bird, seen apparently only by islanders, who describe it as having a feline face and huge, predatory eyes. It is said to hunt at dusk and prefers a diet of small lizards.

Among the commonest Guam birds is the sihig (Halcyon cinnamonus), a small blue-and-tan insect-feeding kingfisher. Although not considered a bird of prey, it is reputed to eat very young birds and to pick out the eyes of baby chicks. It will also feed upon lizards, and its eerie night cry makes it likely material for native myth.

Guam boasts an edible-nest swift called golindrina (Collocalia fuciphaga) by the Spaniards. It makes nests of dry leaves glued together by a secretion from its mouth, though the nests are different from those of the Chinese bird which are such a delicacy in Oriental soup. On the island there is one real songbird (Acrocephalus uscina), a real warbler that in former times nested in profusion in the Agaña swamps but has now chosen the waist of the island near the windward valleys for its home. It had a song of singular sweetness, and its voice contrasts agreeably with the cacophonous chatter of the other island birds.

Shore birds number among their group a peculiar bittern (Ardetta sinensis) called the kakkag by the Chamorros; the common reef heron of the Pacific (Demiegretta sacra) called the chuchuko, which is not rare but extremely wary and hard to approach; and two rails (Hypotaenidia owstoni) and (Poliolimnas cinereus) called the koko. In former times both these birds were caught by the Chamorros with bamboo snares laid along jungle trails near the shore. A widely distributed water hen or gallinule (Gallinula cloropus) called a pulatal is considered exceptionally fine eating.

Guam has no sea gulls. Noddies (Anous leucocapillus) are quite common, however, and there is a beautiful snow-white tern seemingly quite unafraid of the modern industrial bustle, still quite prevalent in the vicinity of Inner Apra Harbor. It optimistically lays a single white egg on the bare branches of trees. The common booby (Sula sula) is a daily sight off the cliffs of Orote Peninsula, and the red-footed booby (Sula piscator) with white plumage also appears in this area. These acrobatic boobies pursue flying fish and dart down from great heights into the surf, plummeting through the air in a streak of white feathers.

REPTILES AND INSECTS

Guam has few reptiles. Most conspicuous among these is a giant lizard (Varanus indicus), an iguana of four feet or more in length, although many reliable sources put the length up to eight feet. Its general color is dark brown with a speckling of lemon yellow. Sometimes against the jungle perspective it appears muddy green, at other times almost yellow-brown. Laura Thompson in her absorbing social study of the island entitled Guam and Its People retells a native Chamorro legend of how the giant iguana got its color.

"Once," her story goes, "according to a favorite tale, the iguana had a beautiful voice of which she was very proud. The mockingbird said, 'Truly your voice is sweet, but my feathers are the most beautiful.' The iguana went immediately to a certain quail noted for her wisdom. 'How ugly your black feathers are! Can't you paint yourself to look more attractive?' she said. 'And can't you paint yourself to change that green coat of yours?' replied the quail. So they agreed to paint each other and the iguana said, 'I'm so tired, won't you paint me first?' Then the quail, using her feathers as a brush and her eggs as paint, gave the iguana a yellow coat which, when hard, was smooth and shiny. 'Now it's my turn,' said the quail. But the iguana was so pleased that she began to sing and ran quickly away. 'May your tongue split for playing such a trick!' cried the quail and since that day the iguana's tongue has been split and she has lost her beautiful voice."

Legend or not, the hilitai or iguana is a bird-eating lizard and would probably not have stopped to converse with the quail before pouncing on it. The reptile is a great pest, a marauder of chicken coops and an eater of small wild birds and eggs. It has even been known to attack dogs in self-defense when it was cornered. On the neighboring island of Rota, where the high almost impenetrable mesa dominates the larger portion of the small island, the sparse native population and the underdevelopment of land offer the perfect protective combination for the hilitais, and they have been able to breed themselves to larger and lustier dimensions. I have seen captured lizards there that measure almost six feet in length and closely resemble some formidable prehistoric dragon. The iguana's flesh is sometimes eaten, and its hide is occasionally substituted for domestic commercial leather in the fashioning of belts, bags, and small purses.

In the jungles lives a handsome blue-tailed skink (Emoia cyanura), a tiny lizard with longitudinal bronze lines along its back and a skittering turquoise tail. It is a harmless and beautiful creature and sight of it is said to bring good luck.

More domesticated, invading most of the houses on Guam, is the harmless and helpful little gecko (commonest of six varieties is Sepidodactylis lugubris), called the gualiig by natives. After first acquaintance with it, one becomes thoroughly accustomed to seeing several about the house, as they spend many nocturnal hours catching insects. The pads of their toes are so constructed that they are able to run up vertical walls and walk upside down across a smooth ceiling and over rafters and beams. Sometimes they will cling for hours to the vertical metal screening of porches and breezeways, waiting with motionless patience for the passage of moths, mosquitoes, and any other insects attracted to lights shining into the darkness from the interior of a house. It is not unusual to see three or four of them pursuing one hapless insect, approaching it like so many stealthy cats after a lazy bird. They utter a chirping, birdlike sound, quite loud and insistent, and they are generally known as "island canaries." It is not difficult, in fact, on hearing their voices for the first time, to imagine the voices of birds. When frightened they sometimes shed their tails and dart away to a safe corner or crevice. I have heard natives say that it is considered very bad luck to kill them, and they are esteemed in native houses and left unmolested in their hunting much as the European cricket was, and still is—as an omen of good fortune.

Guam's only snake is a blind earthworm with microscopic eyes, about six inches long. It looks more like a giant earthworm than a reptile, though it is minutely scaled. Like the salamander of Western America, its habitat is the damp places beneath rocks and building foundations. Turtles are common sights while one is reef or boat fishing near the shoreline. In aboriginal times they were caught from outrigger canoes, but this art is lost, as is the need for the turtles. Their shells were of great value in former days, and pieces were used for money and jewelry.

Insect life on Guam is not too varied, but there is an abundance of all species of the mosquito and the stinging ant. The mosquito on Guam is non-malarial; mosquito nets have not been much used since the advent of modern screening and the use of insecticides. Nevertheless, their presence in oppressive weather can be a great nuisance.

The stinging ant (solenopsis) is another matter, for its persistency is well known to the natives of Guam and will soon impress the visitor. Foraging as they do in expeditions, they will cross any obstacle in a straight line and have even been known to kill baby chickens with their considerable sting. Fleas are rare; the humid climate is not agreeable to their propagation, and lice and bedbugs are virtually unheard of. They are so rare that the aboriginals blamed their original introduction to Guam on the early navigators landing at Umatac.

Two species of butterflies formerly unknown to science were discovered on Guam by the Freycinet expedition during its several months' stay on the island in 1819. There are several handsome dragonflies to be found in the interior valleys near water and some large water bugs that skate over stagnant pools.

The white ant or termite causes extensive damage on the island, despite efforts to exterminate it. Whole houses, seemingly sturdy, have collapsed after an army of these industrious eaters have devoured its sub-surface insides. Nor do they stop at dead wood; they are known to attack live trees.

There is a small scorpion on Guam whose sting is not dangerous, and several spiders exist, none of them poisonous. Centipedes are common and have a painful though not serious bite. They are often found under stones or dead wood, and the female may be surrounded by a brood of young.

The social wasp (P. hebraeus) is a most interesting insect. As mentioned previously, it spends the greater part of the year in the open country, nesting in bushes where it builds its pendant larvae cells. In the dry months from December on, it invades the eaves of houses. Sometimes it will infiltrate to the interior of a house in great numbers, massing like bees in corners and rafters. The cell-making wasp will fill all available openings with repeating cells and can be found to have plastered a nest in rolled-up papers and under the lids of long-unused boxes and cases. No possible nesting place in a house is safe from this busy insect. It is not uncommon to unroll a stored map, a calendar, or a picture and find a group of these dried mud cells attached securely to the inside of the roll.

FISHES

Although today fishing on Guam has only a minor importance in comparison to its role at the time of the 1898 occupation, still many Chamorro natives net-fish in the shallow reef waters about the island, catching various small fish that move in schools through the clear water of the lagoons. Fresh-water fish have never been highly prized by the indigenous people, and, although one group of early explorers caught sizeable, edible fresh-water eels in Guam's streams, the natives disdained them as food, preferring their sea-food diet. However, the aboriginals did eat fresh-water shrimp from rivers and streams. In remote parts of Guam even today a few bamboo fish traps and primitive seines are used in coastal fishing. At the turn of the century a profitable business was carried on with this method on the southern coast, the fresh fish being shipped across the waist of the island to the Agaña market.

However, the Chamorros, over the several centuries of their known history, have come in from the sea. They no longer fish much from boats, almost never from canoes, and cannot swim today like the human dolphin Pigafetta describes in his narrative of Guam. The ancient custom of trawling from canoes for flying fish and bonito has died out; fresh and canned meats augment the local cuisine today. Still in some spots the natives employ an ancient method of stupefying fish with the crushed fruit of the futu tree, a strand tree whose seagoing pod is often found to have sprouted in the outcroppings of the live reef. When dry the fruit is used as floats for native nets. Safford cites its use in reef fishing at the turn of the century in a vivid description:

"The fruit is first pounded into a paste, inclosed in a bag, and kept over night. The time of an especially low tide is selected, and bags of the pounded fruit are taken out on the reef next morning and sunk in certain deep holes in the reef. The fish soon appear at the surface, some of them lifeless, others attempting to swim, or faintly struggling with their ventral side uppermost. The natives scoop them up in nets, spear them, or jump overboard and catch them in their hands, sometimes even diving for them."

Since this poisoning method of fishing was highly popular with the natives from aboriginal days and since it always killed a great many fish not necessarily eaten, the Spanish prohibited the custom. Safford states that after 1898 it was revived under the Americans, although at the present time the method has been superseded by the extremely dangerous technique of dynamiting the reef's holes for fish. This is also now prohibited but continues to be employed, sometimes fatally to the fisherman as well as the fish in the area of explosion.

Although Apra Harbor's complete industrialization has eliminated the beautiful mangrove-swamp shore line except at two or three wild, untouched points around its inner periphery, low tide can still produce a phenomenon Safford described with wonder in 1899:

"In the mangrove swamps when the tide is low hundreds of little fishes with protruding eyes may be seen hopping about in the mud and climbing among the roots of the many-petaled mangrove. These are the widely spread Periphthalmus koelreuteri, belonging to a group of fishes interesting from the fact that their air-bladder has assumed in a measure the function of lungs, enabling them to breathe atmospheric air."

The fauna of Guam range considerably beyond this brief chapter listing. Safford, because of his intense and careful study, includes other unusual tropical fishes, for example, which cannot be discussed here: hermit crabs, night-feeding land crabs, sea crabs, and a large variety of deep-sea fish occurring throughout the Marianas and in and about most of the lagoons and shores of other Pacific islands and atolls. The foreshortened attention given here to wild life of all groups has been purposely narrowed down to direct the reader's attention to the scene an inhabitant of Guam might observe in casual trips about the island, to what his untrained eye would naturally recognize as the moving faunal panorama which gives a startling and vivid dimension to the physical portrait of a characterful island.