Conservation Of Hawaii's Imperiled Species.
Islands are well known among biologists for having a wealth of endemic, unique species found nowhere else in the world. Unfortunately, there is another reason why island organisms have attained celebrity status among biologists: they are extremely vulnerable to extinction, much more so than mainland species. These two attributes are connected. The uniqueness of island organisms is the main reason why they are so susceptible to rarity and extinction, a condition that has been likened to a "Shakespearean tragedy- (Wilcove 1999). In recent times, this tragedy has hit the Hawaiian Islands harder than any other island group. They are the most isolated island group in the world, so almost all of the wildlife on Hawaii is unique and found nowhere else. Each species was specially adapted to its island habitat and extremely sensitive to any changes to its nature because it had developed in isolation from conditions that had shaped mainland organisms. Not surprisingly, human colonization of Hawaii has been disastrous to its wildlife. This paper documents what has already been lost, what is currently being lost, and what is being done to conserve what is left of one of the strangest and most fragile ecosystems on Earth.
The Hawaiian Islands were formed from volcanic activity in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, making them "oceanic- islands (as opposed to "landbridge- islands, which are formed when rising sea levels cut off an area from the mainland) (Wilcove 1999). This is an important fact because it means that each island had no major life forms initially and was essentially just rock. Because of the extreme isolation of the islands, it is estimated that successful colonists reached the islands only once every 70,000 years (Fielding). This is obviously not a high rate of successful colonization, but the few organisms that reached the islands were free to develop into unique forms because many of the predators and competitors they dealt with on the mainland could not possibly cross the ocean and reach the islands.