Enviornmental Impact

We learned so much from the park ranger at Volcano National Park.

Way back when there was a rat problem in Hawaii. The story goes (at least the way I remember it) that a guy told a farmer that he had a solution. He took the farmer aside, opened a box and showed him a mongoose. Then the guy dropped a rat into the box and the mongoose killed it. The farmer was impressed, bought a hundred or so mongooses (I want to say "monGEESE" but it is actually incorrect) and set them free on the island and shipped them to his farms on the other islands. The thing is, rats are nocturnal and mongooses are diurnal. They never see each other so now, there are rats AND mongooses. The bad thing about the mongooses is that they are killing off the native birds. They are fierce hunters and frequently raid nests and eat the eggs. John Paul shared a story with us in Kona about the mongooses as well. According to him, the captain of one of the boats taking mongooses to one of the other island farms went to inspect his furry cargo. He stuck his finger in the cage and the mongoose bit him. The captain retaliated by kicking the crate overboard so that's why there are no mongooses on Kauai. Some say this is why Kauai has so many wild chickens.

Then there was a story of ginger. A woman went somewhere, saw this beautiful yellow flower and brought bulbs home to plant. Turns out the flower was a form of ginger that is invasive and grows aggressively. Now the roots are snuffing out the indigenous plants including the koa tree.

The third story she told was of the feral pigs, another island menace. Pigs aren't a native species. They were brought here for dinner. Some escaped and started breeding. Since there is no natural predator their population is increasing. Because lava is so porous it does not retain water; therefore, the land does not retain much water here in Hawaii. When pigs need a drink, there aren't that many puddles so they knock down palm trees or destroy other bromeliads that have water stored in body of the plant. They scoop out all the liquid and leave the giant husks behind. Water gathers in the husks when the rain falls and mosquitoes breed there causing another island pest to flourish.