ECOLOGY: The Last Hawaiian Tree Snail

By Maddox Brown

Salutations. Twenty-four days ago was the two-year anniversary of the death of beloved George, the last Hawaiian tree snail, marking the extinction of this rare species of snails. George was around 14-years old when he sadly passed away.

He was born in a captive breeding facility at the University of Hawaii in Manoa in 2005. However, soon after he was born, all of his kin tragically passed away. Researchers named the lone survivor George, or ‘Lonely George’, after “Lonesome George,” the last remaining Pinta Island tortoise, that sadly passed away on June 24th, 2012.

Researchers tried for years to try and find another snail for George to breed with, hoping to revive the immensely endangered species. Let me emphasize the fact that I didn’t specify the gender because these types of snails are hermaphrodites. If you don’t know what a hermaphrodite is, they are organisms that have the sex organs of both genders, only needing another member of the species in order to have kids. George was spontaneously classified as ‘he’ by the researchers.

Starting in 2016, the beloved tree snail started living in a terrarium at the University of Hawaii and at the time of his death he was kept in a trailer in Kailua, Oahu.

George’s death gives emphasis to the struggle for survival of diverse species of Hawaiian snails. There was once a time when Hawaiian snails were in abundance all around Hawaii but were decimated by invasive species such as rats, Jackson’s Chameleons (which are horned chameleons native to East Africa but recently imported to Hawaii, Florida, and California), and surprisingly to me, another species of snail, called the rosy wolf snail.

Other factors also contribute to their disappearance, like loss of habitat via habitat destruction by animals like pigs, deer, and goats that reduce the forest vegetation, thus leaving the snails less to eat. This species of snail didn’t really have pre-existing predators or threats, so they couldn’t adapt to the sudden introduction of predators.

George died on New Year’s Day 2019 at the incredibly old age of 14. Luckily, scientists were able to preserve a 2-millimeter snippet of George’s foot which contains his DNA. This could possibly mean a revival of this mostly unknown species. Scientists will be able to use this piece to clone George if the cloning of snails becomes viable, so we can only hope for now.

Actually, many species of snail are on the edge of being extinct for various reasons. Multiple organizations are focusing on the issue and trying their best to hopefully rescue and preserve the endangered species. Maybe one of you reading this article will be the one to find the solution!