Most of us will never have the opportunity to visit these two small islands at the southern end of the Northwestern Hawaiian archipelago, but a book just published by Bishop Museum Press allows those interested in the islands’ history, culture, flora and fauna to enjoy them without the need to travel. The book, Natural History of Nihoa and Necker Islands (228 pages, $16.95 soft cover), brings together contributions from nine experts at the museum, including editors Neal L. Evenhuis and Lucius G. Eldredge, in the debut publication of a new series, Bulletins in Cultural and Environmental Studies.
Many of the islands’ inhabitants are introduced species; a fair number are endemic to the Hawaiian chain; and a select few are found only on the islands in question. In his introduction to the section on terrestrial arthropods, Evenhuis notes that although arthropods “are the most diverse group of animals found on these two islands … little is known of their biologies.” New species continue to be discovered, he writes, such as the “remarkable Conant’s giant Nihoa tree cricket [discovered only in the 1980s], and the Nihoa giant rock cricket,” the largest examples of their type to be found anywhere in the Hawaiian Islands.
Terrestrial animals and plants alike are “at constant risk of extinction,” the editors write. In 1885, “a landing party accompanying Princess Lili`uokalani accidentally started a fire that consumed virtually all of the loulu palms on the island. The palms have come back and, at last count were around 700 in number.” More recently, the island has been devastated by a large grasshopper, Schistocerca nitens; a survey in 2002 found thousands of individuals grazing on every type of vegetation on the island, they write: “The millerbirds and finches on the island are slightly smaller than the grasshopper and unfortunately are not adept at catching them for food.”
While the threat is constant, the editors are not despairing. “If the vegetation of Nihoa is strong enough to survive the devastation of fire, we hope that it will also be able to survive the damage caused by a plague of grasshoppers,” they write in the chapter on environmental threats. “Only time will tell.”
True, but time alone may not be sufficient to heal the islands’ injuries. As devastating as human presence has been, it could also spell the islands’ salvation. Monitoring the islands’ resources, mounting efforts to save them from grasshoppers and the near-certainty of future marauding invaders, learning more about these limited ecosystems and their working parts – all that will take funds and that, in turn, will require public awareness of all that is at risk.
Thanks to this compilation by Evenhuis and Eldredge, efforts to alert the public to the unique cultural and natural patrimony of these two islands will be all the easier.
Without fuss or fanfare, and with hundreds of beautiful photographs, Natural History of Nihoa and Necker gives readers an armchair tour of the islands – and a lasting interest in the welfare of its inhabitants. It is an auspicious launch to Bishop Museum Press’s new series.
— Patricia Tummons
Volume 16, Number 6 December 2006
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