Story at a glance
- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed 23 species be removed from the endangered species list due to extinction on Wednesday.
- Nearly one-third of these species were from Hawaii.
- The nine Hawaiian species that went extinct include eight birds and a plant.
Nearly one-third of the 23 species the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to be removed from the endangered species list due to extinction on Wednesday were from Hawaii.
“Of all the species listed as endangered or threatened in the United States, nearly a third are Hawaiian,” Maxx Phillips, Hawaii director and staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a press release. “While the Endangered Species Act has successfully prevented the extinction of 99 percent of listed species, without urgency, proper funding and protected critical habitat, these nine species may be the canaries in the coal mines for our biodiversity in Hawaii. There is no bouncing back from extinction.”
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Among the newly extinct species in Hawaii were eight birds and a plant: three honeycreepers called the Kauaʻi ʻakialoa, the Poʻouli and the Kauaʻi nukupuʻu; two songbirds known as the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō and the Maui ākepa; a thrush called the Kāmaʻo; the Maui nukupuʻu; the Kākāwahie; and a flowering plant from the mint family known as Phyllostegia glabra.
According to a 2016 study, species waiting to receive safeguards and protective statuses under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service waited an average of 12 years to do so, during which time at least 47 species went extinct.
“It’s heartbreaking that Hawaii is known as the ‘extinction capital of the world,’ ” Phillips said. “Despite making up 30 percent of the nation’s listed species, our incredibly rare Hawaiian plants and animals receive less than 10 percent of the money appropriated for recovery.”
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