Where Kāhuli Wander: Climate change and a Hawaiian tree snail
| dc.contributor.advisor | Price, Melissa | |
| dc.contributor.author | Hee, Charlton Kūpa'a | |
| dc.contributor.department | Natural Resources and Environmental Management | |
| dc.contributor.department | Master's of Environmental Management | |
| dc.contributor.instructor | Idol, Travis | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-06-13T20:50:53Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-06-13T20:50:53Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2024-05-08 | |
| dc.description | Presentation slideshow and written report | |
| dc.description.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. | |
| dc.description.course | NREM 696 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10125/108288 | |
| dc.publisher.place | UH Mānoa | |
| dc.subject | Conservation Introduction | |
| dc.subject | Climate Change | |
| dc.subject | Translocation | |
| dc.subject | Post-release Monitoring | |
| dc.subject | Home range | |
| dc.subject | Extinction Prevention | |
| dc.subject | Achatinella | |
| dc.title | Where Kāhuli Wander: Climate change and a Hawaiian tree snail | |
| dc.type | Text | |
| dcterms.language | English | |
| dcterms.publisher | UH Mānoa | |
| dcterms.rights | Creative Commons | |
| dcterms.rightsHolder | Hee, Charlton Kūpa'a |