Report: Nearly all native birds in Hawaii in peril

[babylonsister]

Report: Nearly all native birds in Hawaii in peril

By AUDREY McAVOY, Associated Press Writer
Fri Mar 20, 8:18 am ET


HONOLULU – Hawaii's native avian population is in peril, with nearly all the state's birds in danger of becoming extinct, a federal report says.

One-third of the nation's endangered birds are in Hawaii, said the report issued Thursday by the Interior Department. Thirty-one Hawaiian bird species are listed as endangered, more than anywhere else in the country.

"That is the epicenter of extinctions and near-extinctions," said John Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which helped produce the study. "Hawaii is (a) borderline ecological disaster."

Hawaii's native birds are threatened by the destruction of their habitats by invasive plant species and feral animals like pigs, goats and sheep.

Diseases, especially those borne by mosquitoes, are another killer.

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090320/ap_on_re_us/birds_hawaii

[wtmusic]

1. At least they've been able to keep the brown tree snakes out

"The snake would be a social menace as well as a threat to Hawaii's already endangered native birds. Its behavior in Guam could well furnish scenes for a horror movie: armies of snakes crawling at night along electrical wires and hanging off fences; parents waking up in the morning to discover the coils of one of these serpents wrapped tight around their baby in a crib, chewing the child's fingers; snakes swallowing puppies, kittens, domesticated rabbits and chickens wholesale, and, in bathrooms all around the island country, hundreds of snake heads popping out of drainpipes, ready with a painful and slightly venomous bite."

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/14/news/ecological-menace-could-shatter-hawaii-s-freedom-from-snakes.html

[babylonsister]

2. Guess what-

I lived in Guam for a year and that whole thing was so blown out of proportion. Every time there was a power failure, and that was just about daily, they'd blame it on the brown tree snake instead of their own failures. It was just comical after awhile.

And fwiw, I saw one snake, dead in the middle of the road, in a year.

[wtmusic]

3. But an island of snakes is so much more newsworthy

Thanks, I love those stories.

Sounds like developers tried to pin the effects of their own encroachment on scary snakes.