Wikipedia

Snail extinction prevention program

The snail extinction prevention program (SEPP) or Hawaii snail extinction program, is a program founded in 2012 that is trying to prevent the extinction of Hawaii's many rare snails such as Achatinella.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

Achatinella fuscobasis

Efforts

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Snail enclosures

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The Rosy Wolfsnail (Euglandina rosea) one of the main causes of Hawaiian snail extinction

One of the ways the SEPP tries to save those rare snails in by keeping them in an fenced and constantly monitored enclosure in the Hawaiian forest that keeps them away from invasive snails, such as the rosy wolfsnail and other introduced predators, such as the Jackson's chameleon, the land flatworm Platydemus manokwari, and black rats.[1][3]

Enclosure walls

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Platydemus manokwari a predatory flatworm that poses a threat to Hawaiian snails.

The walls of the SEPP snail enclosures are lined with a steel fence, to protect the with a rim to insure wolfsnails don’t climb over the fence.[1] Behind the steel fence, there is an electrical fence to insure that any wolfsnails that do get in don’t go in and swallow any snails whole (wolfsnails swallow the native snails whole).[1][2]

Lab snails

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The Jackson’s Chameleon, one of the invasive species that eat Hawaiian tree snails

The SEPP also keeps snails in an laboratory in Hawaii.[1][7]

Evacuation

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In 2020 there was an hurricane and the snails that lived in the lab had to be evacuated.[1][7] There are ongoing concerns about future evacuation problems since as of 2022 there are over five thousand snails living in the lab, while there were fewer snails living in the lab in 2020.[1][7]

Achatinella pupukanioe

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Black rat

Recently, in 2015 to be exact, the SEPP team found a tree full of Achatinella pupukanioe, a species thought to be extinct since the 1980s, the SEPP decided to leave them alone, but later when they went to collect the snails for the lab they were gone, possibly swallowed whole by Rosy wolfsnails.[1][9][10]

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Image of live Achatinella pupukanioe, Flickr.com

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Dooren, Thom van (2022). A World In A shell snail stories for a time of extinctions. MIT press. ISBN 9780262547345.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  2. ^ a b "Snail Extinction Prevention Program". dlnr.hawaii.gov.(offical web page for Snail Extinction Prevention Program)
  3. ^ a b "Achatinella Swainson, 1828". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2024-12-13.
  4. ^ "Biodiversity and Extinction of Hawaiian land snails:how many are left now and what we must do to save them". academic.oup.com. doi:10.1093/icb/icy043. Retrieved 2024-12-09.
  5. ^ Van Dooren, Thom; Chrulew, Matthew, eds. (2022). Kin: thinking with Deborah Bird Rose. Durham: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-1-4780-2266-4.
  6. ^ Bezan, Sarah; McKay, Robert, eds. (2022). Animal remains. Perspectives on the non-human in literature and culture. London New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-000-50648-8.
  7. ^ a b c d "Meet Hawaii's 'jewels of the forest'-some of the rarest animals on earth". npr.org. 2024.
  8. ^ Markovics, Joyce L. (2023). Yellow-tipped Oahu tree snail. Endlings. The last species. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Cherry Lake Publishing. ISBN 978-1-6689-0972-0.
  9. ^ "pupu kani oe (Achatinella pupukanioe)". iNaturalist. Retrieved 2024-12-22.
  10. ^ "NatureServe Explorer 2.0". explorer.natureserve.org. Retrieved 2024-12-26.
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