Updated at 3:00 p.m., Sunday, December 23, 2007
Rat eradication proposed on Mokapu Island, Molokai
Advertiser Staff
A rat eradication project proposed to protect and restore wildlife habitat on Mokapu Island will be explained to the public during two upcoming public meetings on Moloka'i in early January.The10-acre island off the north coast of Moloka'i is home to three nesting seabird species and 29 species of native plants, 17 of which are only found in Hawai'i.
The meetings, at 6 p.m. on Jan. 3 at Kilohana Community Center and Jan. 4 at Mitchell Pau'ole Community Center, are sponsored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of Land and Natural Resources.
According to DLNR officials, at least three seabird species—wedge-tailed shearwaters ('ua'u kani), red tailed tropicbirds (koa'e 'ula), and white-tailed tropicbirds (koa'e kea) nest on the island. Mokapu also has 11 of the last 14 Pittosporum halophilum plants in the wild and a small population of loulu lelo (Pritchardia hillebrandi) palms, which are becoming increasingly rare. The top threat to these island inhabitants is the rat.
Nearby Huelo Island, which does not have rats, is thickly covered with these palms and is the last coastal palm forest in the state, with the exception of Nihoa Island in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Fossil evidence indicates that loulu palm forests once covered huge areas of coastal lowlands throughout the main islands in Hawai'i.
