The Hawaiian Nene's Endangerment, Who is Responsible?

The Hawaiian Nene has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN's extinction scale for the past 50 years. A Vulnerable status is given to any species at high risk for extinction. The Nene's numbers during the middle of the 1900's were reduced to a laughable 30 on one island in the middle of the Pacific. Thirty - less than half of the Animal Behavior class. This near extinction was belived to be caused by the isolation of the species to just the Hawaiian islands. On top of just a tiny extant population, these geese are all almost genetically idential.

However, researchers from Smithsonian's National Zoological Park and National Museum of Natural History investigated these matters. By sampling the goose's DNA from four different time periods in the past 2500 years (bones from paleontological dig sites 2500 years old, DNA samples from middens around 500 years ago, museum specimens 80 years ago, and geese still alive today). Much to their surprise, the geese only showed significant genetic variation in the oldest samples - ones older than 500 years.

This data coincides with the arrival of humans at the islands roughly one thousand years ago. Perhaps through slight environmental changes, the Nene's natural habitat was altered and no longer was able to support them in a way it had for thousands of years prior. Should the geese be considered unlucky, or quite lucky? On one hand, they were able to overcome extinction (with human intervention) like many other extinct Hawaiian species, on the other they no longer are the thriving populus they once were.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/06/020610074732.htm

Posted by Dave Sokolowski(4)