| CarebearsChris |
01-26-2007 10:06 AM |
More facts about Hawaii
Here are Hawaian facts. Sorry I didn't get any yesterday. Was a busy busy day.
1.) The Hawaiian Islands are the Earth's most isolated parcels of land lying in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean some 2400 miles from both the nearest continental land mass, North America, and other islands of Polynesia in the South Pacific Ocean.
2.) Owing to their isolation, the Hawaiian Islands are biologically unique. They were colonized initially only by the relatively few species of plants and animals that were suitably adapted for the long journey over 2400+ miles of open ocean. Hawaii has no native land reptiles or amphibians and only two native mammals, the horay bat and monk seal. Even in the surrounding ocean the number of coral species are limited and nearly 25% of inshore fishes are endemic (i.e., found only in Hawaiian waters). Over 4300 species of plants and animals exist only in the eight high islands. The 1000 native plants evolved from as few as 280 original plant colonists and 100 endemic bird species developed from as few as 15 original aviators.
3.) The Islands of Hawaii were one of the last places on Earth discovered and occupied by humans. There is little or no evidence of human contact of any kind before about 100 AD. The first significant colonies, made by ocean voyaging Polynesians, were not established until around 400-600 AD. Modern contact was not made until only 220 years ago when Captain James Cook first encountered Kauai on January 19, 1778.
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