More Articles

• September 2010
• August 2010
• July 2010
• June 2010
• May 2010
• April 2010
• March 2010
• February 2010
• January 2010
• December 2009
• November 2009
• October 2009
• September 2009
• August 2009
• July 2009
• June 2009
• May 2009
• April 2009
• March 2009
• February 2009
• January 2009
• December 2008
• November 2008
• October 2008
• September 2008
• August 2008
• July 2008
• June 2008
• May 2008
• April 2008
• March 2008
• February 2008
• January 2008
• December 2007
• November 2007
• October 2007
• September 2007
• June 2007
• April 2007

Oahu Tree Snails at Poamoho

Posted: October 23, 2007

I hiked the Poamoho Trail with the Sierra Club to photograph the Oahu Tree Snail which is “Kahuli” or “Pupu Kani Oe” in Hawaiian.  Kahuli have always been special to me.  I bonded with them the first time I saw their shells at Bishop Museum as a child.  These snails are endemic to the island of Oahu and are found no where else in the world.     

 

The Poamoho Trail is a ridge hike that overlooks Poamoho Stream as it meanders on the valley floor below.  You can see many native koa and ohia trees along with uluhe ferns on the steep slopes.  

 

Ohia trees with red, yellow and orange lehua are the dominant tree at Poamoho.  Kahuli live on ohia trees and are nocturnal creatures.  At night they graze on algae and fungi on that live on ohia leaves.  During the day, they crawl to the underside of ohia leaves and sleep. 

 

Here is a photo of three kahuli (Achatinella sowerbyana) sleeping on the underside of ohia leaves.  They have beautiful green, yellow, and white shells with a black stripe that accentuates the spiral.  

Kahuli were once common on Oahu.  So plentiful were their numbers that it was said the trees rained snails when you shook their trunks.  Collecting kahuli shells was a popular past-time.  Several of these shell collections were acquired by the Bishop Musuem and exhibit a broad range of shape, color and markings.  Unfortunately, habitat destruction and predation by introduced rats and carnivorous snails has wiped out many tree snail species populations.   Today, only a fraction of Achatinella species that once lived survive.   All the remaining species are on the list of endangered species. 

Here is a photo of a kahuli (Achatinella mustelina) sleeping on the underside of an olomea (Perotetia sandwichensis) on Mount Kaala in the Waianae Mountains.   The shell of this kahuli is white at the tip with alternating patterned bands of brown that get progressively larger with each loop of the spiral. 

Many thanks to the Sierra Club for providing the means to access Pomoho to photograph these amazing tree snails.