Meet
George.
George is the last known living individual of Achatinella apexfulva. David Sischo and his team from the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) named him
“in homage to …Lonesome George, the Pinta Island tortoise who was the last
individual of his subspecies.” George’s home would normally be the mid
elevation forests on the Hawaiian island of O'ahu rather than the safe
environment of the new labs of the DNLR, but he’s here, having outlived his
siblings. Nearby there are another 500 at-risk snails of other imperiled
species, safely tucked into protective nests of ‘ōhi'a lehua, 'ie 'ie, and branches
of other native plants, in climate controlled Caron Growth
Chambers.
There
are 44 Hawaiian land snail species listed as endangered under the US Endangered
Species Act. The other 706 that are known and described haven’t been studied
enough to receive listing status. Achatinella,
George’s genus, is the most studied, but conservationists estimate Achatinella species are only 6% of the
native snail species present in the islands; the other 87% are largely
unresearched but likely declining at similar rates. That gap in understanding seriously
limits work to prevent their extinction.
That’s
where the museum and zoo fields are helping the natural resources team.
Norine
Yeung is working to gain intellectual control of the largest collection anywhere
of Pacific Island land snail specimens, and the 2nd largest
malacology specimen collection in the world (over 6 million). It is at the Charles
Montague Cooke, Jr., Malacology Research Center at the Bishop Museum. The collection’s field notebooks tell us the
story of 100 years of original research, conducted by scientists from all over
the world. George is a member of the first species of Hawaiian land snail to be
described by researchers. It was part of a lei giving to a Captain George Dixon
while he was on Oʻahu in 1786-1787.
Yeung’s
goal is to create research access, and public access, which
is one of the first steps to take to start clarifying Hawaiian Land Snail
systematics: naming species (taxonomy) and determining relationships among its
groups (phylogeny). Systematics supports the applied conservation that David
Sischo and his team at DNLR, George’s keepers, conduct on a daily basis. Conservation
scientists need this access and information to help them understand the evolution
of a species, species relationships, the likely threats to the species, and how
species become dispersed among the mountain ridges and valleys throughout the
Hawaiian Islands. This knowledge guides decisions when identifying and rescuing
snails, protecting new habitats, and reintroducing sufficient populations into
predator-proofed and legally-protected areas.
Yeung
became interested in malacology (study of mollusks) in 2008 when she accepted
an invitation to join a survey team from University of Hawaiʻi
at Mānoa.The team recorded 200 new species in 10 native
families during almost a decade of work. Seeing the threatened state of the
snails, and realizing how very few scientists studied and protected them, Yeung
chose to change her focus from ornithology to
malacology (study of mollusks). She procured a grant for her position at the
Bishop in August 2016, and started bringing the focus back
to research, which Charles Montague Cooke, Jr. had in mind when he became
curator of the deparmtnet in 1907. The collection has not had a curator or researcher for about 15 years, but has been maintained primarily by a half-time malacology
technician (Regina Lkawamoto), and extraordinarily-committed volunteers, including
the retired curator, Dr. Carl Christensen. Now, with the help
of a research assistant supported by
funds from the
National Science Foundation, Yeung is stepping-up the work to improve access to the collections.
They are rehousing the specimen collection,
inputting taxonomic data, which includes spcies name,
collection locality and date, into an in-house database that will be used to
create a searchable database. They will also digitize
the historical field notebooks collected by Cooke
and his peers from the early 1900s . These notebooks are
a treasure trove of information on extinct, endangered, and threatened
species. They tell researchers what specimens alone cannot. Once the collections
database work is complete, DNLR’s Sischo and other researchers
worldwide can query by geographical location,
taxon, and other collection data to improve
their understanding and support their critical conservation work.
The
biodiversity of the islands is at stake. O'ahu is part of the most isolated
island chain on the planet. 99.5% of the land snail species are endemic to
the Hawaiian Islands. So many of the
plants and animals “co-evolved” here on Oʻahu or the other seven
islands that “the extinction of one species could lead to cascading
extinctions of other species” according to Hawai’i’s DNLR. Such serious losses threaten the ecosystem
and Hawaiian cultural heritage. George’s extinction is due mostly to introduced
invasive predators, habitat destruction through widespread and rapid
development of wild spaces on the island, over-collection, and limited
knowledge of the snail populations across this island. But it’s not just about
George; it’s about how his story is a Pacific Islands story.
Loss of land and habitat, and the introduction of
invasive species forever change the appearance and usefulness of the landscape,
and remove it from cultural access. The land snails are part of historic native
Hawaiian chants, they support folk stories and heritage symbolism, and their
shells were used for making ceremonial lei. The snails are also
an important component of healthy native ecosystems. Fewer snails mean
fewer food sources for native birds, and loss of ecosystem benefits to keep the
forests healthy: detritivore snails eat the dead plant materials on the forest
floor and recycle nutrients for plant growth; other snails eat leaf-based fungi
that thrive in the moist environment and potentially threaten plant health. Snails are tiny, but mighty.
Still, with no way to escape disease, habitat loss,
introduced predators, or climate changes, George and the rest of the snails
depend upon humans to reverse these changes or create alternative solutions. Sischo
and his team study snail habitats and food sources, and work with community
members to identify new protected spaces. They rescue snails, cultivate
stronger and larger populations, predator-proof the new habitats, and release
and monitor the snails. This is
a tough battle that requires
teamwork. Recently Hawaiʻi’s
DNLR and the Division of Forestry and Wildlife have expanded the Snail
Extinction Prevention Program team of collaborators to include The Honolulu Zoo. In 2017 the Zoo
will open a new Reptile and Amphibian Complex. It will have an invertebrate
research and recovery lab that is a separate location for Hawaiian Land Snail
populations – a duplicate gene pool for safety - and public engagement space
promoting conservation in Hawai'i. Laura Debnar, Curator and Conservation Chair
of the Zoo’s Aloha ‘Āina Conservation
program, says this is one example of how the zoo expects to increase involvement
in Hawaiian conservation programs and engage citizens in science and
conservation.
This Hawaiian Land Snail Extinction
Prevention Program is a perfect example of the future of conservation. I met
Sischo and Yeung as they presented at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) recent World Congress. The conference leaders emphasized that to
protect biodiversity and the planet’s air, land, and water resources, it requires partnerships of research scientists and informal educational institutions. These conferences and partnerships strengthen
science by raising
awareness, teaching
skills, and creating agency among many more of the
planet’s citizens, than conservationists can alone.
Sischo, Yeung, Debnar, and their colleagues at the Bishop Museum, Honolulu Zoo, DLNR and DOFAW, are doing the hard but,
important work of furthering the United Nation’s Sustainable
Development Goals through their
passionate commitment to George and his friends.
SDGs
#13 Climate Action, #15 Life on Land, and #17 Partnerships for the Goals.
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