Endangered snails transferred to Bishop Museum’s Pūpū Ola: Kāhuli Captive Rearing Research Center

Bishop Museum, the State of Hawai‘i Museum of Natural and Cultural History, recently welcomed Hawaiian land snails believed to be the last known surviving representatives of its genus.

The public will be able to view these rare snails for the first time during Bishop Museum’s 4th Annual Kāhuli Festival on Saturday.

Named Endodonta christenseni by Bishop Museum curators Dr. Norine Yeung and Dr. Kenneth Hayes and their colleagues in 2020, the tiny snail was discovered by the Museum’s first Curator of Mollusks, C. Montague Cooke Jr., during the Tanager Expedition* in 1924.

Nearly a century later on Oct. 15, its descendants arrived at Bishop Museum’s Pūpū Ola: Kāhuli Captive Rearing Research Center (located in the Richard T. Mamiya Science Adventure Center).

*The Tanager Expedition was a series of five biological surveys in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands between 1923-1924.

“Once, 11 species of Endodonta lived across the Hawaiian Islands, part of a larger family of as many as 200 species. All but this one species are now gone,” said Dr. Yeung. “Along with a single surviving relative in the main Hawaiian Islands, Cookeconcha hystricella, these two species represent our last chance to save the ancient lineages of native land snails in Hawaiʻi.”

Endodonta christenseni was undescribed for almost 100 years after its discovery until Bishop Museum curators formally named the species, placing it on a path to conservation, as well as alerted the State of Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Snail Extinction Prevention Program.

Through the continued partnership between the snail extinction prevention program and Bishop Museum, the Endodonta christenseni are secured at Pūpū Ola, where they will be protected, studied, and bred to increase their numbers, eventually to be released back into the wild. 

“These snails embody both fragility and resilience,” said Yeung. “From Cooke’s discovery in 1924 to our team’s work today, Bishop Museum has been at the heart of their story. Their survival reminds us that entire evolutionary lineages, millions of years in the making, are at stake. Through Pūpū Ola and our partnership with DLNR SEPP, we are building a safety net for Hawaiian land snails to ensure their stories endure for many generations.”