Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
'Akiapōlā'au (
Hemignathus munroi
) looking for grubs
When it comes to rarities and even common species whose numbers are falling, the problem
we face now is how fast the current activities of
Homo sapiens
are speeding up extinctions
of everything Hawaiian, from land birds to snails to plants. The loss of birds, though, is the
most obvious. “What really surprised me about the Hawaiian birds,” Liba said, “was their
susceptibility to the devastating impacts of invasive species by predation, competition, and
disease.” She sounded as if she were preparing an epitaph. “Few species have survived the
plague that is avian malaria, the loss of key host plants such as lobeliads to pigs and other un-
gulates, and nest predation by rats and cats. I'm not sure there is anywhere else in the world
where invasive species have had such a dramatic effect on a native avifauna.”
Yet surprising data from another part of her 'aki study offered a glimmer of hope: “Re-
member the beautiful old-growth koa forest we walked through in Hakalau Forest? The one
you thought looked like Middle Earth from
The Lord of the Rings
? When I started my 'aki
project, most folks assumed 'akis were rare in part because they depended on big, old ko-
as in places like Hakalau Forest.” Most biologists were simply buying into the conventional
wisdom of rarity theory: rare habitats should be where rarities are concentrated, and because
there was little old growth left, the 'akis that depended on them were on their way out. Only
it turned out that the 'akis didn't depend on the koa old growth exclusively.
