Rats Threaten Native Species, Army Steps Up Attack
06/15/2010
Photo by Army Natural Resources Staff
KAHANAHAIKI — Downtown Honolulu is just 30 miles away, but in remote Kahanahaiki, it feels like 3,000 miles.
Makua, home to explosives and military training exercises, looks serene from this gulch high up on the valley's back wall. A canopy of a thousand shades of green, a chorus of bird chirps and wind gusts and a sweeping, unobstructed view of Oahu's idyllic North Shore reinforce the notion that Kahanahaiki is largely unspoiled.
The most obvious exception is a chest-high metal fence shielding the 65-acre gulch and its sensitive ecosystem from feral pigs and goats. But look a little closer and you'll see snap traps and bait boxes — measures to eradicate what is normally thought of as an urban menace: rats.
"People think rats are bad," said Steve Mosher, Elepaio and Small Vertebrate Pest Program Manager for the U.S. Army's Natural Resources Program. "But in the forest they're even more dangerous."
Rodents prey on native birds and their eggs, sea turtle eggs and hatchlings, native tree snails and other invertebrates. They consume seeds, fruits and flowers and destroy plants by chewing on shoots, stems and trunks. Hawaii has 20,000 native species, half of which are found nowhere else on earth, and rats are among their worst threats.
