Welcome to the #extinction capital of the world
Our planet faces a #MassExtinction. I visited ground zero.
By Benji Jones
Dec 14, 2023, 8:00am EST
PEARL CITY, #Oahu — "On a warm November afternoon in a trailer not far from Pearl Harbor, a scientist named David Sischo popped open the lid to a small plastic tank. From a jumble of leaves, he pulled out something precious.
"'I would argue that they’re one of the rarest animals on Earth,' Sischo said.
"A hand wearing a blue latex glove holds a clear plastic petri dish with five small cream and brown striped snails above a box containing green vegetation.
"David Sischo holds a petri dish with a handful of Achatinella fulgens #snails.
"In his hands were several cream-colored snails. They had thin brown bands circling their shells, like swirls of caramel in a small scoop of ice cream.
"The snails were asleep and tucked into their shells as Sischo placed them on a petri dish (snails are nocturnal). But after a few minutes, their antennae popped out, their gooey feet emerged, and they started to move. Slowly.
"These snails, a species called Achatinella fulgens, are one step away from #extinction. They only exist in this room, a lab that’s part of the state’s Snail Extinction Prevention Program (#SEPP). Funded in part by the Endangered Species Act (#ESA), it’s a modern-day Noah’s ark, home to roughly 40 species of snails that are either extinct in the wild or about to be.
"In recent decades, hundreds of species of snails have gone extinct across the Hawaiian Islands, said Sischo, a state biologist who runs SEPP. Another hundred are now at risk of blinking out. These animals may lack charisma by some definitions, but they are revered in native Hawaiian culture and linchpins in their ecosystems. They recycle nutrients, helping fertilize the forest, a source of water for the island."
Read more:
https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/2023/12/14/23990382/extinction-capital-hawaii-endangered-species-act
#Hawaii #EndangeredSpecies #Snails #ExtinctionEvent