Show keeping up t i V wi cien 1 se er V e 0 i I 1 0 science service service 4 pigs and goats are arc serious problems for the hawaiians Hawaii ans el by y DR DIE THONE now new york hawaii seems to have been a paradise that escaped the trampling hoofs and in d devouring mouths of the age of mammals almost entirely until the coming of that most troublesome of all in mammals man to introductions duct ions and changes wrought by human agency are traceable most of the damage and destruction to the unique vegetation of the isla islands ads S some ome of those these disturbances were described before the north amerlean american wildlife conference at its baltimore meeting by samuel 11 II lamb assistant park naturalist of hawaii national park although mr lamb confined his discussion to problems within the national park boundaries ho he stated that in many ways way 11 these are typical of conditions for tho countryside at large I 1 the only mammal that seems to have found its own way to hawaii unaided by man Is the bat the original brown skinned immigrants brought dogs and perhaps pigs and they may have carried rats rata and mice as stowaways other stu students dats of tho the problem believe that the pigs rats and mice date from a n supposed visit by the spaniards in the sixteenth century goats were brought by vancouver in 1794 and other livestock came later I 1 destroy the vegetation of them all most destructive to Ila hawaiian wallan native vegetation oro are goats and pigs escaped from domestication and now living as wild animals in the rough wild interior in part thickly forested in part grassland and semi desert lava fields goats are notorious everywhere as destructive feeders pigs are re even worse for they root underground d der or 9 round ground devouring bulbs and roo rootstocks root ts stocks tocks and breaking the ground cover to give allen alien grasses and weeds a chance to gain efforts to save at least part of the native vegetation include goat tight fences around selected areas ardds followed by concerted drives to eliminate the feral animals within thern them in broken lands where fencing cannot be carried out the only thing that appears practicable Is to permit and even encourage wholesale shooting of goats and pigs |