Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumHawaiian Snail Extinctions: "We're Just Trying To Stop The Bleeding"
George, the last individual of a Hawaiian tree snail species known only as Achatinella apexfulva, died New Years Day in a laboratory on Oahu, where he had been a bit of a local celebrity. He was featured in many newspaper, magazine and online articles, and hundreds of school children and visitors to the lab eagerly viewed him, the last of his kind, the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources wrote in announcing his passing.
Once widespread and admired for their beauty, Achatinella apexfulva (a hermaphroditic species, despite the masculine name and pronouns) was nearly wiped out decades ago by an overzealous industry that collected and strung together their shells into traditional leis. The species was actually thought to be extinct quite some time ago, explains David Sischo, a biologist who coordinates Hawaiis Snail Extinction Prevention Program. Then, in 1997, a small population was rediscovered in a couple of trees along a hiking path on Oahu. The last 10 snails were brought to a captive-breeding facility, where they reproduced, giving birth to George and a few other baby snails. The success didnt last long. Unfortunately there was a pathogen or something were not sure what and all of the population died except for this one, Sischo says. Now after 14 years living in captivity George, too, has died. No other members of the species have been found in the wild in the years since, so the species is almost certainly extinct.
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Its pretty shocking how fast this extinction event is happening, Sischo says. Based on the declines that weve seen over the past two years, we expect all of our large tree and ground snails at least, most of the populations that are left to be gone within one to 10 years. Sischo reports that many snail populations have vanished practically in front of his eyes. Weve had many instances where we were, like, five minutes too late, he says. There have been times when weve just wanted to cry because weve gone back to a place where we were expecting to find hundreds of snails and we found 10 or zero and it was the day wed actually gone to bring some of them into captivity to save them.
The declines can mostly be attributed to invasive predators, including rats (Rattus rattus) and other rodents, Jacksons chameleons (Trioceros jacksonii), and, ironically enough, another snail a predatory species called the rosy wolfsnail (Euglandina rosea) that was imported from Florida. Compounding the irony, the wolfsnail was first imported to Hawaii in the hopes that it would eat another invasive species, the giant African land snail (Lissachatina fulica), which was consuming crops on the islands.
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https://therevelator.org/hawaii-snail-extinction-crisis/