An historical analysis of hunting in Hawaiʻi

Abstract

At present, 21 game species have been successfully established in Hawaiʿi for hunting. These represent only a fraction of the game species that have been introduced since the first Europeans arrived in 1778. Very little information is available regarding the motivations behind game species introductions, historical changes in hunting policy, and the actual number of animals harvested annually. Such information is essential when formulating effective management strategies because it allows resource managers to utilize knowledge about past patterns of resource use in order to evaluate the impacts from earlier management regimes. An historical perspective is especially important when formulating appropriate management goals in Hawaiʿi where every game animal is an introduced species. My goal was to decipher and interpret hunting trends in Hawaiʿi by examining hunting trends from two different perspectives. First, cultural motivations behind the intentional introduction of at least 72 game species since 1778 were examined using an historical ecological framework (Chapter 2). Second, the influence that time, location, and species have had on both game harvest and hunter participation from 1946 to 2008 was investigated using a statistical analysis of data obtained from annual state Pittman-Robertson reports (Chapter 3). These analyses were accomplished by (1) compiling a chronological catalog of every (known) bird and mammal introduced to Hawaiʿi for hunting since 1778 and evaluating the concurrent shifts in cultural, political, and/or economic policy and wildlife management approaches using data from 61 years of state government documents, peer-reviewed literature, books, periodicals, and unpublished works; and (2) analyzing 62 years of check-station data for temporal trends in game harvest and hunter participation for all species, individual species, and taxonomic groups (mammals and birds) at both state and island levels using a regression framework. Analysis revealed that changes in public opinion toward game animals shifted according to the prevailing cultural climate of the time, corresponding with historical periods that can be demarcated by five major political events: European contact (1778), the Kingdom of Hawaiʿi (1819), the Territory of Hawaiʿi (1898), the end of World War II (1945), and the Endangered Species Act (1973). In addition, since 1946, trends in game harvest and hunter participation in Hawaiʿi have varied widely among different islands and species suggesting that game management may be most effective when approached at the island or species level. This study provides a reliable foundation for improvements in state game management tactics.