Readers can trace the natural history of the Hawaiian Archipelago through the book's twenty-eight chapters or focus on specific topics such as island formation by plate tectonics, plant and animal evolution, flightless birds and their fossil sites, Polynesian migrational history and ecology, the effects of humans and exotic animals on the environment, current conservation efforts, and the contributions of the many naturalists who visited the islands over the centuries and the stories behind their discoveries. An extensive annotated bibliography and a list of audio-visual materials will help readers locate additional sources of information. Those interested in Hawaiian natural history will find this a thoroughly enjoyable overview and a valuable reference. Instructors and students will benefit from its up-to-date summary and synthesis of the subject.
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Book Description
Not since William A. Bryan's 1915 landmark compendium, Hawaiian Natural History, has there been a single-volume work that offers such extensive coverage of this complex but fascinating subject. Illustrated with more than two dozen color plates and a hundred photographs and line drawings, Hawaiian Natural History, Ecology, and Evolution updates both the earlier publication and subsequent works by compiling and synthesizing in a uniform and accessible fashion the widely scattered information now available.
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About the Author
Alan C. Ziegler has lived in Hawai'i for more than three decades, spending the first half of this period as head of Bishop Museum's Vertebrate Zoology Division and the second as an independent zoological consultant. He has taught in the anthropology, general science, and zoology departments of the University of Hawai'i and at community colleges in the state.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Indispensible and up-to-date mythbuster,
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This review is from: Hawaiian Natural History, Ecology, and Evolution (Hardcover)
It's been three decades since anyone has published a general survey of Hawaii's natural history.A lot has happened since. Just on Maui, researchers have discovered po`ouli birds, happyface spiders and the fossils of extinct, flightless giant "geese." And we now know more about what was already known here 30 years ago, like the fibropapilloma tumor disease of green sea turtles, which was present at least by the mid-'50s, though unrecognized. Today it is epidemic. These islands are unique and so strange, biologically and geologically, that even a survey requires a thick book. Alan Ziegler says his "Hawaiian Natural History, Ecology, and Evolution" is "relatively condensed" and intended for the general reader or possibly as a college textbook. For a condensed product, "Hawaiian Natural History" is pretty chewy. The book is filled with tables and charts. So if you want to know how many species of geckos live in Hawaii and when each was introduced, the answer is on page 238 -- seven species, four brought by ancient Polynesians and the most recent migrant, the orange-spotted day gecko, sometime in the 1980s. Anyone in Hawaii with an interest in environmental issues needs to be familiar with what's in this book, which covers even more subjects than Sherwin Carlquist's standard text "Hawaii: A Natural History," which hasn't been updated since 1980. For one thing, there are four myths about Hawaii that are found in almost every popular book and article, and even in some professional papers, and Ziegler explodes three of them. It is not true that Hawaii enjoys "rich volcanic soil." That's Sicily. Hawaii's volcanos are different, and Ziegler explains why. It is not true that Hawaii harbors an incredibly diverse biota. Like other isolated archipelagoes, it is missing a lot -- reptiles, amphibians, pines, oaks etc. Ziegler dislikes such terms as "depauperate," "impoverished" or "truncated," settling somewhat reluctantly for "disharmonic." Anyhow, Hawaii's flora and fauna demonstrate very high endemism but very low diversity. It is not true that the ancient Hawaiians had some sort of mystical understanding that allowed (or required) them to live in harmony with nature in a way Westerners cannot. It takes some courage for Ziegler to say it, but we know now that every human society -- Polynesians no less than any other -- altered its territory to suit its desires, to the limit of its technology. Batting .750 is pretty good, but unfortunately Ziegler whiffs the fourth myth. It is not true that after Contact the Hawaiian population succumbed to exotic diseases for which they "had no natural immunity." Neither did anybody else. Diseases such as smallpox were as deadly to Europeans as to Hawaiians. The etiology of the disease played out differently, and more disastrously both individually and socially, for the Hawaiians. But it should have been clear from news reports current at the time this book was published (concerning the possibility that terrorists had somehow gotten hold of live smallpx virus) that Europeans and European Americans do not believe they enjoy natural immunity from smallpox. That episode ought to have been enough to demolish the fantasy of haole (white) immunity, but the notion is so entrenched, it probably won't. "Hawaiian Natural History" is not as graceful reading as some flossy "environmental" books about Hawaii, but it is much more reliable than most, and it lopes across more territory than any other. Should a reader want to explore more deeply, Ziegler provides an extensive annotated bibliography. "Hawaiian Natural History" will be indispensable.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fascinating lesson in ecology and the state of paradise,
By
This review is from: Hawaiian Natural History, Ecology, and Evolution (Hardcover)
Many visitors arrive in Honolulu from Japan on planes decorated with one of the most exotic of Hawaiian birds, the scarlet i'iwi. But they will not see an i'iwi on Oahu. To see one they will have to treck to a remote tract of forest on one of the outer islands. Why are there almost no native Hawaiian birds left outside mountain forests? How did the i'iwi develop its spectacular shape? And what happened to the flightless birds whose remains have accumulated in lava tubes? To understand such things requires some understanding of the the geology, climate, and flora as well as the history of the islands. Ziegler's book makes all of these things accessible, especially to readers with some prior knowledge of one or more of these fields. It covers everything from the volcanic origins of the islands to the agricultural practices of the Polynesian settlers and the impact of alien species. It gains greatly from being written by a single author with a consistent, learned but readable style and format. As a linguist I was impressed by the care taken with the Hawaiian language: Hawaiian terms and names for species are provided and explained wherever possible. The book thus makes an unexpected but welcome contribution to the ongoing revival of the Hawaiian language, as well as to ecology and island biogeography. A paperback edition would help greatly to promote wider appreciation of the fragile natural world of the Hawaiian islands.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Arthropods to Mammals,
This review is from: Hawaiian Natural History, Ecology, and Evolution (Hardcover)
Ziegler covers every topic in Hawaiian Natural History: Invertebrates, vertebrates and plants. Also there are interesting chapters on Geology as well. If you are wondering where the evolution is in the book, there is a nice chapter on evolution's history and concepts. It has been mentioned that Ziegler devotes particular care to the traditional Hawaiian names of animals and plants and that is the case. There is also a chapter on the history of the Polynesians and another on their ecology. There are separate chapters for birds, mammals and even snails. Nice tables list endemic species as well as indigenous and alien. I found the book rather boring to read cover to cover but that is my particular taste. I am a biology student but not working in the field. Perhaps this book would serve as a reference.
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