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"At first, I just wanted to play music and be happy," said Ryan Hoan, a senior at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. But after a few rounds of college's trial and error game, he eventually found his niche: saving the snails.
Aside from breathtaking landscapes and grade-A weather, Hawai‘i is home to the largest number of endangered species in the world. Hoan is part of an organized team at the Endangered Tree Snail Lab that has set out to rescue one of the many endangered species native to Hawai‘i, the O‘ahu Tree Snail.
Ever since the mid-1800s, these snails have been known for their unique shells and their exceptional performance in adaptive radiation. Unfortunately, these admirable qualities led to their downfall.
A combination of issues threatened the tree snail population, including deforestation, predators (such as rats and carnivorous snails) and local collectors seeking to use their shells as jewelry. As a result, out of the 41 species in the genus Achatinella, only 7 to 8 species remain. All of them, except two, are endangered. In 1984, the O‘ahu Tree Snails made it onto the world's list of top 12 most endangered animals.
Two years later, Dr. Michael Hadfield, a professor and advisor in the UH Department of Zoology, established the first organized extensive effort to save the endangered species.
According to Hadfield, "Captive-rearing efforts have been so successful that we now have more than 800 snails in our laboratory, including a species that no longer occurs in nature."
Take for example the achatinella apexfulva, a snail that was found in Poamoho.
"There are only two left in the world," said junior Mark-Anthony Pascua, a biology major.
Given that they are the only group legally permitted to bring the snails into the lab and perform genetic sampling, Hadfield and his colleagues at the Endangered Tree Snail Lab are considered to be performing the most complete effort at captive propagation of this species.
In Henke Hall, in a lab about the size of a public restroom, the snails are kept in small plastic cages, according to junior Jenna Tomasa, an Environmental Studies major who works at the lab.
The thoroughly cleaned cages are then stored in towering white chambers, each set to a different temperature. The conservation team has succeeded in mimicking the snails' natural habitat, giving them two showers every day, except on "drought days."
The restoration efforts include three main goals: to physically remove the snails from the forest, regulate and secure their habitat from predators and other threats and conduct research that will help rebuild the snail colonies.
Aside from endless paperwork and deadlines that sometimes come too soon, Hoan's favorite part is "hiking up the mountains, doing fieldwork and getting dirty."
Unlike his past jobs, this experience has opened a new realm of opportunities for Hoan. He didn't expect that participating in Hadfield's snail protection plan would also inspire him to make a life-long commitment to the ecological conservation.
"I like seeing the direct effects of my work and just knowing that you're contributing," he said. "I've always wanted to do something with a higher meaning."
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