Where Kāhuli Wander: Climate change and a Hawaiian tree snail
Date
2024-05-08
Authors
Contributor
Advisor
Instructor
Depositor
Speaker
Researcher
Consultant
Interviewer
Narrator
Transcriber
Annotator
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Volume
Number/Issue
Starting Page
Ending Page
Alternative Title
Abstract
As climate-suitable envelopes shift for increasing numbers of sensitive species, assisted translocations may be necessary for hundreds of native Hawaiian species that have no overlap between current and future climate-suitable habitat. Translocations are fraught with risk for source populations. The development of protocols and benchmarks for translocation, release, and monitoring are critical to successfully moving species into climate-suitable habitat. Hawaiian tree snails, Kāhuli in the Hawaiian language, have dramatically declined over the last century due to invasive predators, habitat loss, and climate change. As predator-exclusion fences have proven effective in protecting snails from invasive predators, the Division of Forestry and Wildlife Snail Extinction Prevention Program (SEPP) is translocating wild snails into predator-exclusion fences in climate-suitable areas outside their known historical range. These translocations provide an optimal case study to examine the home range establishment of a climate-sensitive species. In this study I used capture-mark-recapture techniques to evaluate movement patterns and reconstruct individual home ranges for 70 translocated snails, 35 at two predator-exclusion sites. I also pioneered use of a new photo-identification tool and optimized protocols that can be used as a template for future translocations, releases and monitoring . Released individuals established stable home ranges within 2-4 months, supporting the hypothesis that after an initial wandering phase a stable home range would be established. Home range size varied between two locations, one with an established native snail population and one without . My capstone report and a subsequent peer-reviewed scientific article will serve SEPP as credible justification for future conservation introductions of at-risk species into areas outside of their historical range. The study results demonstrate that translocated populations are likely to persist, establishing novel home ranges when translocated into climate-suitable habitat.
Description
Presentation slideshow and written report
Keywords
Conservation Introduction, Climate Change, Translocation, Post-release Monitoring, Home range, Extinction Prevention, Achatinella
Citation
Extent
Format
Geographic Location
Time Period
Related To
Related To (URI)
Table of Contents
Rights
Creative Commons
Rights Holder
Hee, Charlton Kūpa'a
Local Contexts
Email libraryada-l@lists.hawaii.edu if you need this content in ADA-compliant format.