Laysan Island, USA Photograph by US Fish & Wildlife Service   Oceania Tropical and Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands   50 square miles (100 square kilometers) -- about the size of Washington DC Vulnerable

· Remotest of the Remote
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Remotest of the Remote

If you've ever traveled to Hawaii, you've probably seen a lot of places that have been significantly altered by the presence of humans. But to get a better sense of how Hawaii might have looked long ago, you could travel to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. These are the oldest and remotest parts of the Hawaiian Islands, which are themselves the most isolated archipelago in the world! On these small islands, you'll see a number of land birds, snails, and plant species that no longer inhabit the main Hawaiian Islands.

Special Features

The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, sometimes called the Leeward Islands, are the remnant peaks of large, ancient underwater volcanoes. The bulk of the islands lie underwater, and they range in age from 7 to 12 million years old. The climate here is subtropical, with annual temperatures of 50˚ to 90˚ F (10˚-32˚ C) and rainfall ranging from about 28 inches (700 mm) per year on the drier islands to 43 inches (1,100 mm) on the wetter islands. Many of the islands are named for the ships or ship captains whose wooden ships foundered on the reefs, thereby "discovering" the islands.

	The Laysan finch eats a wide variety of food--not only seeds, roots, and invertebrates, but also seabird eggs and sometimes even dead animals!

Wild Side

Visit the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and you may see as many as 18 species of seabirds that breed here, with a total population estimated at 10 million birds. Land animals include eight species of land snails, 64 known arthropod species, and 12 plant species. Among the distinctive plants are lo'ulu palms, aweoweo, and ilima, which dominate Nihoa, the largest island of the group. Three species of native land birds dwell on the islands as well: Laysan finches, Laysan teals, and millerbirds, with a fourth--parrot-billed honeycreepers--now extinct.

Cause for Concern

In 1909, President Theodore Roosevelt declared one section of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands the "Hawaiian Islands Bird Reservation." Today these islands are still protected as the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge, and their habitats remain relatively intact. Still, because they are so small, the islands are extremely vulnerable to disturbances. Guano mining in the early 1900s almost devastated Laysan Island, as did the introduction of exotic species, including tobacco and rabbits. Introduced plants still threaten native species on the islands.

For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report.