Cousin to a local revered in an exotic land
- John Lorson: The Rail Trail Naturalist
- March 5, 2024
- 297
My wife and I were well aware we would see plenty of things we hadn’t seen before when we headed off on a dream vacation to Hawaii. What I hadn’t fully recognized, however, was just how many of those “things” couldn’t be found anywhere else on the planet.
A full 25% of all of the endangered species in the U.S. are found only within the isolated chain of islands that make up our 50th state. Hawaii is so far removed from any other land mass (2,250 miles) that there had been very little natural interchange of species — both plants and animals — before man entered the picture. Organisms that did find their way to the islands were left to flourish and evolve over time into whatever form best suited them for survival. As a result, one finds birds, bees, flowers and trees that are uniquely Hawaii, each of them the progeny of castaways that somehow floated or flew there millennia ago.
Stories of adaptation and survival are literally everywhere you look. A particularly interesting study in the art of “blossoming where you’re planted” is offered by the official state bird, the Hawaiian goose or nene (pronounced nay-nay), which was one of several species of geese that flourished on the islands right up until the arrival of Polynesian settlers just over a thousand years ago. Scientists believe the seed stock for at least three separate species of goose unique to the islands arrived in the form of a flock of dramatically off-course ancestors of North America’s ubiquitous Canada goose.
In an environment essentially free from ground predators, the need to escape to the air was greatly diminished over time. Furthermore, the short legs and fully webbed feet of today’s Canada goose would be little more than clumsy accessories for birds now attuned to grazing amid rugged lava rock. Over time the webbing between toes gave way to a toughened, more turkey-like, half-web set of toes and longer legs perfect for a life spent strolling about the lava fields and paddling through the water when needed.
The nene never lost its ability to fly, an attribute that is likely key to its status as the sole surviving goose species on the Islands. The other branches of its ancestry perished as man and his introduced band of ground-traveling predators including the rats, dogs, feral cats and pigs gobbled up the hapless beasts in short order. Even a fierce and pernicious predator, the mongoose, which was intentionally introduced from Africa to quell rat populations that threatened plantation crops of sugar cane, coffee and pineapple, turned instead to the easy pickings of ground nesting geese. The nene was extremely close to suffering the same fate as its relatives, as its numbers had shrunk to just 30 individuals in the wild by the 1950s.
Thankfully, through intense conservation efforts that included captive-breeding of nene held in zoos and private collections around the world, then release into the wild — especially on the island of Kauai, where the mongoose is no longer a threat — the population of nene has now rebounded to nearly 4,000 fiercely protected and greatly adored birds.
If you have comments on this column or questions about the natural world, write The Rail Trail Naturalist, P.O. Box 170, Fredericksburg, OH 44627, or email jlorson@alonovus.com. You also can follow along on Instagram @railtrailnaturalist.