the story of a land...

my Life Science lecturer is a good storyteller too...

Far away from the continents and in the middle of endless ocean lived a land peacefully for hundreds of millions of years. Nature evolved there in a unique system due to complete isolation from the rest of the world. Native species discarded evolutionary adaptations that deter predators. When there is no enemy, why spend money on defense budget?

Snails had no shells; plants had no thorns; birds were not skilful flyers and were happily nested on the grounds; the plants were defenseless because there were no goats, pigs, and deer; the insects were abundant and not aggressive, spending peaceful life in sucking honey from the flowers and in exchange pollinating them; the trees coexisted peacefully because no one wanted to grab the lion share of sunlight.

On this peaceful sun-bathed island came the Polynesian voyagers. The hunters had easy time in killing the flightless birds. Along with the voyagers came some rats hiding in their boats. The rat population flourished on the defenseless ground-nesting birds. In no time the big flightless birds and the small ground-nesting birds were extinct. Recently in 1778, came Captain James Cook with his pet goats who had good time feeding on the native plants. In 1880s, mongoose was brought in to prune the mice and rat populations. Pruned they did indeed, but they also pruned the native birds.

Then came some Argentineans, and along with them came some ferocious ants that had no difficulty in wiping out peace-loving native insects. Pollination suffered, and many plant species became extinct. Along with some Kenyan guests came Jackson’s chameleons, the colorful Kenyan lizards that enjoyed dining on the shell-less snails and insects. Just the other day in 1937 came a group of guests from Tahiti, who brought a beautiful ornamental tree miconia as a gift. Soon the tree was renamed by the locals as ‘green cancer’ because the trees with their dense foliage grabbed the lion share of the sunlight thereby eliminating many small plants and mosses that anchor soil and hold rainwater. As a result, landslides eroded soils from the hillsides to the shallow coral reefs that helped sustaining fish and marine populations.
Do you want to know the name of the land where it happened? This is the true story of the famous islands of Hawaii on the Pacific Ocean.