Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
On isolated island chains such as Hawaii, then, one can witness both the results of incred-
ible Galápagos-like radiations from a single ancestral species and the catastrophic effects of
some more recent introductions by humankind. The outcome of this clash, the first evolved
over eons, the other more recent, and its effect on rarity has application to oceanic islands
everywhere.
I had a chance to see honeycreepers during a visit to Hawaii's Big Island in July 2001. Eco-
logist David Wilcove, a friend who had also accompanied us on part of the journey in the
Cerrado, was with me. Our main purpose was to attend an international conference on con-
servation biology taking place at the University of Hawaii's Hilo campus. The real attraction,
however, was a chance to risk burning our retinas by looking straight at a molten-red 'i'iwi,
perhaps the most beautiful of all Hawaiian honeycreepers, and to meet scientists in charge of
saving the extant half of this endangered family.
At dawn on the first day, David and I headed up the road to the pass between Hawaii's
reigning natural monarchs—the volcanoes Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. Joining us was con-
servation planner John Morrison, a colleague from the World Wildlife Fund; later that af-
ternoon we would rendezvous with another, ornithologist John Lamoreux. We ignored the
danger posed by the drivers hurtling by at high speeds and instead took pleasure in listening
to one another mangle pronunciation of the local bird names. If we could spot even one of
the birds whose names we were trying to master, such as the 'i'iwi (pronounced e- e -vee), we
joked, our struggles with the Hawaiian language would disappear. We stopped at a popular
birding spot, K puka 21—a k puka being a forest patch that has become isolated by a recent
lava flow. Native koa and 'ōhi'a trees make up these fragments of mature forest, the 'ōhi'a
sporting flowers resembling the bottlebrush blossoms of eucalyptus. The bright red color of
the flowers acted as a magnet for the nectar-feeding 'i'iwi and 'apapane .
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