{"id":53355,"date":"2025-01-28T14:05:14","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T14:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/aerospace\/how-a-hawaiian-high-school-student-inspired-nine-new-state-animals\/"},"modified":"2025-01-28T14:05:14","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T14:05:14","slug":"how-a-hawaiian-high-school-student-inspired-nine-new-state-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=53355","title":{"rendered":"How a Hawaiian High School Student Inspired Nine New State Animals"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Maddie Bender<\/a><\/p>\n

Freelance writer<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

What do nine Hawaiian snails have in common with the Texas longhorn, the Florida panther and the California grizzly bear? They\u2019re all U.S. state animals. And the snails hold another notable distinction\u2014they are the country\u2019s first-ever state gastropods.<\/p>\n

This past April, Hawaii enacted a law to designate nine species of k\u0101huli<\/em>\u2014the Hawaiian word for the native land snails\u2014as the state\u2019s official snails. At an event held for the signing of the bill into law at the governor\u2019s residence, jarred specimens of the nine k\u0101huli decorated a table. Before committing his pen to paper, Governor Josh Green told lawmakers, students and malacologists\u2014scientists who study mollusks, including snails\u2014that the legislation passed as a direct result of their advocacy.<\/p>\n

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\"Hawaii

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Governor Josh Green signs the bill to designate nine species as state snails.<\/p>\n

Courtesy Hawaii Office of the Governor<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But the story of Hawaii\u2019s state snails originated with one student, who created a movement that gained momentum long after they graduated, inspiring future classrooms to take up the mantle. Support for the k\u0101huli law and a greater awareness of the rare species have buoyed conservation experts\u2019 hopes that we will be able to save these endangered species.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be able to help people care, people have to be aware,\u201d says Norine Yeung, the malacology curator at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in Honolulu, \u201cbecause you can\u2019t conserve what you don\u2019t know about.\u201d<\/p>\n

The making of a snail law<\/h2>\n

Twenty-four-year-old Kalikoon\u0101mauk\u016bpuna Kal\u0101hiki, who\u2019s known as Kaliko for short and uses gender-neutral pronouns, began volunteering at the Bishop Museum the summer after ninth grade with two of their friends. \u201cI didn\u2019t really have anything better to do,\u201d they recall, and so spent afternoons digitizing the malacology department\u2019s 248,000 mollusks\u2014which include one of the world\u2019s most comprehensive collections of Pacific Island land snails.<\/p>\n

Soon the snails tugged at a deeper part of their identity as a Native Hawaiian (Kanaka Maoli, in the Hawaiian language). Kal\u0101hiki learned through historical research and mo\u02bbolelo<\/em>\u2014the Hawaiian oral tradition of stories\u2014of snails\u2019 deep cultural importance. Mere centuries ago, the forests of the Kingdom of Hawai\u02bbi were so replete with endemic land snails that the wind rustling through the trees would have produced a high-pitched whistle as k\u0101huli shells jostled against one another. Hawaiian cowboys known as paniolos<\/em> and others plucked snails off branches and traded their variegated shells like baseball cards.<\/p>\n

Evidence of the k\u0101huli\u2019s historical abundance felt jarring as Kal\u0101hiki prepared and scanned empty shells from the Bishop Museum\u2019s collection. They painstakingly removed boxes from packed shelves, carefully handling the delicate remains of extinct snail species. The vibrant orange swirls<\/a> of a snail shell belonging to the Carelia<\/em> genus caught their eye\u2014the group once included the largest terrestrial snails endemic to the state. But the three-inch gastropods haven\u2019t been seen on the island of Kauai since the mid-1900s and are presumed extinct.<\/p>\n

Carelia<\/em> snails are not the largest in the Hawaiian Islands today. Ironically, the 8-inch giant African snail and the 2.75-inch rosy wolf snail, found throughout the state, are two of the most damaging invasive species to the islands\u2019 ecosystems. The rosy wolf snail cannibalizes endemic k\u0101huli; other invasive species, habitat loss and climate change all pose existential threats to Hawaii\u2019s native snails.<\/p>\n

Of nearly 800 known species of Hawaiian land snail, have been driven to extinction, according to some estimates<\/a>. Remaining wild populations are few and far between, often constrained to remote patches of high-elevation forest; other species only remain extant because of captive rearing programs managed by the Hawaii Snail Extinction Prevention Program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"Endodonta

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Endodonta christenseni<\/em> is the last known living member<\/a> of its genus.<\/p>\n

Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI think that profound sadness is definitely the reason why I felt so compelled to do the work that I was doing,\u201d Kal\u0101hiki says. Studying songs and stories about k\u0101huli helped them understand the creatures\u2019 importance to their ancestors\u2014the reason why, for instance, Hawaiians from the island of Niihau traditionally strung together lei consisting of thousands of k\u0101huli shells. Precontact Hawaiians would also have heard the sound of a forest brimming with native snails. \u201cThis is a phenomenon that my ancestors were able to experience and I\u2019m not able to experience because of the colonization of our people,\u201d Kal\u0101hiki says.<\/p>\n

Kal\u0101hiki\u2019s genealogical kuleana<\/em>, or responsibility, motivated them to think of new ways to protect the islands\u2019 dwindling snail populations. On the advice of Yeung, their mentor, Kal\u0101hiki worked with a lobbyist to draft a bill to recognize a state snail. That draft died in the 2020 legislative session because the snail it proposed as the official state species\u2014Laminella sanguinea<\/em>\u2014is only endemic to Oahu.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking back, it really did not make sense for us to use that approach, because one of the defining characteristics of Native Hawaiian land snails is just how diverse of a radiation they have,\u201d Kal\u0101hiki says.<\/p>\n

The conservationists went back to the drawing board. By the fall, Kal\u0101hiki had gone off to Brown University for college, and it seemed that both the bill and the snails might fade into obscurity.<\/p>\n

Saving a state species<\/h2>\n

Few have studied the link between official species designations and conservation outcomes\u2014whether naming a plant or animal a state species quantifiably helps its persistence. In practical terms, a state\u2019s official animal is not afforded any extra protections or conservation funding solely on the basis of its status.<\/p>\n

One 2017 study<\/a> found that at the international level, 35 percent of countries\u2019 national animals were threatened with extinction; however, the authors did not look at the species\u2019 trajectories before and after they were formally recognized as national symbols. The researchers found that only about a sixth of the national animals they studied had any form of protective status in their country. When it comes to official U.S. state flowers and insects, meanwhile, researchers reported in a September preprint<\/a> that more than half these symbols will face significant declines within their respective states due to the effects of climate change.<\/p>\n

In the case of Hawaii\u2019s snails, proponents including Yeung argue that a state designation brings greater public awareness, which in turn paves the way for increased funding. They pointed to the conservation success story of the state bird, a goose known as the nene, as evidence that a symbolic designation can make a real difference in helping a species hang on.<\/p>\n

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\"Nene\"

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A nene wanders overs some rocks in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.<\/p>\n

George Rose \/ Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Roughly half a million years ago, a flock of Canada geese were blown off course and landed in Hawai\u02bbi, from which they evolved into three species including the Hawaiian goose. But hunting by Europeans and predation from their introduced rats, dogs and mongooses depleted the nene\u2019s population to such an extent that by 1950, fewer than 30 individual birds were living in the wild.<\/p>\n

By that time, there was enormous goodwill for these rare birds. Nene were designated as the official emblem of the Territory of Hawaii in 1957, prior to Hawaii\u2019s statehood. When Hawaii became a U.S. state, the nene was grandfathered in as the state bird: One conservationist rejoiced<\/a> that the designation meant \u201cit really does look as though we will be able to save it now.\u201d As official recognition coincided with a critical moment for the birds, advocates were able to fundraise and call for extra protections, says Jordan Lerma, founder of the nonprofit Nene Research and Conservation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the action of making nene this emblem and designating the nene as a state bird gave people something to rally behind and led to more awareness around their conservation status,\u201d he says. A year after the nene received its official title, Congress gave the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service $15,000<\/a> to study and manage the dwindling Hawaiian goose population. Captive breeding and reintroduction efforts succeeded, and nearly 4,000 nene<\/a> live in Hawaii today.<\/p>\n

Lerma says he hopes the codification of state snails will prompt a similar turnaround for k\u0101huli. Rare species face an uphill battle to garner public support, he adds, since advocates often have to first educate people about these creatures\u2019 existence.<\/p>\n

The nonprofit leader is not the only one who sees parallels between the story of the Hawaiian goose and the endemic land snails. Yeung recalled learning about the nene in grade school. Its status as the state bird sparked her curiosity: \u201cWhy is it a state bird? Where are they located? What are we doing to conserve that?\u201d she remembers wondering.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so now I\u2019m hoping that we\u2019ll have that conversation: Where is Kaala subrutila<\/em>? Why was it a state snail? Where is it located? What can we do to save it?\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

K\u0101huli consciousness<\/h2>\n

In some ways, the initial rejection of the snail bill set conservationists\u2019 goals back. But the feedback Kal\u0101hiki received\u2014that lawmakers would be more receptive to a bill that recognized an endemic snail for each Hawaiian island\u2014gave the movement direction and allowed proponents time to plan, they say.<\/p>\n

With the support of the Bishop Museum, Yeung and a new cohort of interns launched a voting platform<\/a> in 2023 to involve residents in nominating their favorite k\u0101huli. Collectively, residents chose nine snails endemic to the eight major Hawaiian islands\u2014Hawaii Island, Maui, Kahoolawe, Lanai, Molokai, Oahu, Kauai, Niihau\u2014and the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Laminella venusta<\/em> represented the endemic snail species of Molokai; it had been considered extinct for decades until Yeung rediscovered it in 2017.<\/a> For Oahu, voters selected Kaala subrutila<\/em>, a ground-dwelling species with a translucent shell. Inspired by one intern\u2019s obsession with Pok\u00e9mon, the museum commissioned Hawaiian artist Solomon Enos to illustrate over a dozen snail trading cards.<\/p>\n

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A K\u0101huli or Ka’ala snail (Kaala subrutila) from the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii<\/p>\n

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