Blog Your Site

Endemic species are everywhere on Hawaii, the Island chain created by vulcanos far from everything in the pacific ocean. Before humans began brining living organisms to Hawaii, everything had to be transported by the “3 W’s” Wind, Waves and Wings. The waves transported coconuts, swimming animals and animals caught on floating objects to the island, the wind brought airborn seeds and tiny organisms and the wings, I.E. Birds and insects could fly there brinign nuts, seeds and parasites with them.

Hawaii is located rough¶y 4000km (2400 miles) from the nearest continental shore and is therefore the most isolated group of islands on the planet. The main island emerged from the sea about 10 million years ago but other Islands allready existed in the area which meant that the biological colonization of the are had allready begun in the area. Many submerged banks and coral atolls in the area are remnants of these ancient peaks.

The reasons that Hawaii has so many endemic species is the fact that it located so far away from other areas, this works as a biological filter as most animal populations can be traced back to a low number of ancestors that found their way to the island, sometimes only one or two specimens. This leads to a narrowing of the gene pool and the species as it exists today can be very different from its original mainland population.

The ability to fly often makes birds the first larger animals to find new land masses. Some of them return to mainland or move on, but others stay on the island where they eventually turn into new species. On Hawaii, you can for instance find birds such as Hawaiian Duck (Anas wyvilliana), the Hawaiian Goose (Branta sandvicensis), Hawaiian Petrel (Pterodroma sandwichensis) as well as the Hawaiian Hawk (Buteo solitarius). In the local language, they are known as Koloa maoli, Nene, Ua u, and Io, respectively.

A good example of the numerous tropical Hawaiian flowers Endemic to the islands is Hibiscus brackenridgei, the state flower of Hawaii and the flower that pops up in most peoples mind when they think about the Hawaii islands. It is known as Ma’o hau hele in the local language and can be found in shrub lands and dry forrest areas below an elevation of 800 meters (2600ft). Although rare, it is found on all the main islands except Ni’ihau and Kaho’olawe. The yelow flowers are large with a maroon center and grows in cluster at the end of branches allthough it is possible to find flowers growing singly as well.

Among the spiders and insects that have managed to colonize Hawaii you will find the snail eating caterpillar Hyposmocoma molluscivora, the happy faced spider Theridion grallator, and the tree-living snail Achatinella apexfulva. Hyposmocoma molluscivora is a moth whose larvae use silk to capture snails before crawling into their shells and eating them alive. This species is endemic to Maui and is known to make a silk case which it decorates with the shell of the snails it has eaten, it has been suggested that this might be to hide from their prey.