This morning, I walked several loops around the fitness trail at the Old Kona Airport State Beach Park. The trail is bordered by gardens planted with locally abundant plants, and many other exotics. Volunteers appear to tend the gardens and provide food and water for the abundant population of feral cats. One problem with feeding cats is that the food also attracts mongooses. I must have seen at least 10 or 15 mongooses.
The mongoose (native to India) was introduced to Hawaii in 1883 to control rats in sugarcane fields. Although they ate some rats, they had a devastating impact on populations of ground-nesting birds. Their negative impacts on desirable fauna far outweigh their small impact on the reduction of rat populations.
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| Mongoose |
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| Mongoose |
The Pacific golden plover, a long-distance, open-ocean, migrating shorebird, was the bird that Polynesians followed to find the Hawaiian Islands. Amazing migrants, always a joy to see.
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