Habitat protection under the Endangered Species Act

Author:

Bowman, David B., Sidle, John G.

Title:

Habitat protection under the Endangered Species Act

Periodical:

Conservation Biology

Year:

1988

Volume:

2

Pages:

116-118

Subject:

Endangered Species Act of 1973 Feral ungulates Habitat conservation Māmane Palila Predatory animals control

Summary:

This document describes how one of the purposes of the United States Endangered Species Act of 1973 was to provide a means whereby the ecosystems, upon which the endangered and threatened species depend, may be conserved and how the protection of the habitat of the species, that were listed as endangered or threatened pursuant to the act, was incomplete. Also described is how the Act did not adequately define the word "harm" and how the Act appeared to convey an inadequate conservation standards in that shooting an endangered bird was considered a crime, but bulldozing its habitat might not have been. Since environmental modification and destruction often occurred over a long period of time, the Act made it possible for a species to slide into oblivion without the proving of a crime. An example of this is the endangered Hawaiian honeycreeper called the palila, (Loxioides bailleui), that is endemic to the remaining māmane (Sophora chrysophylla) and naio (Myoporum sandwicense) forests, both of which provide the palila with food, shelter, and nest sites on the slopes of Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaiʻi. However, due to the introduction of feral goats and sheep that browsed on the māmane seedlings and shoots in the late 18th century, forest regeneration was curtailed. As a result, amendments were made to the Act of 1973 in an effort to further protect the Palila.

Label:

Birds - Palila

URL:

https://cletus.uhh.hawaii.edu:2075/stable/2386277

Date:

1988

Collection:

Periodicals