By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Neal Evenhuis, Bishop Museums' natural sciences
chairman poses in the "Saucers in the backyard," part
of the exhibit, 'Backyard Aliens: A Close Encounter.'
Bishop Museum gives us a peek
By Burl Burlingame
at the world of alien animals
Star-BulletinHawaiians may have been the first people to settle these islands, but they are relative newcomers, species-wise. Everything living in Hawaii came here from somewhere else, a million varieties of malahini flora and fauna. We have met the aliens, and they is us.
But the phrase "alien species" doesn't conjure up images of coconut trees, happy-face spiders, koa trees or nene geese. Nope, we think of Bug-Eyed Monsters From Outer Space, drooling carnivores in flying saucers, klaatu barada nikto.
So Bishop Museum decided to take advantage of this predisposition while designing the new exhibit called "Backyard Aliens: A Close Encounter," which opens Sunday. "Flying saucers, bright graphics, cartoony colors, all helping to get the message across," said Richard Duggin, Bishop exhibits chairman. "Alien species are a problem everyone faces, but it's exacerbated in Hawaii because of our isolation."
This major-league exhibit will run for about a year, mirroring the school year so students can get the most out of it. Another phase will open in July. Sponsors include the NASA Explorers Program, Hawaiian Electric, Foodland, Oceanic Cable, Sea-Land Service, the Hawaii State Teachers Association, Starbucks Coffee, the U.S. Forest Service and the Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry. There's no help from the state on this exhibit, but more on that later.
By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Leslie Hartzell of Bishop Museum is dwarfed by a giant
robotic scorpion that has has a giant mouse in its claws.
The problem in Hawaii is a new species just doesn't move in, it displaces an already existing species, sometimes wiping it out. A new species sets up house in Hawaii every 17 days.Sometimes, they're just annoying. Take the coqui -- please! -- a thumbnail-sized frog from Puerto Rico that's popping up near swank hotels on Maui. It's also known as the Screaming Frog, and for fun,it makes noise that sounds like fingernails on a blackboard. It's driving hotel guests batty.
The centerpiece for the exhibit is a Hawaiian backyard with a crashed flying saucer in it. Whatever was in it has already escaped. Another saucer hovers above it, and at the controls are -- gasp! -- a brown tree snake.
The "mascot" of the exhibit is the Jackson chameleon, the three-horned creature from Madagascar that has become the pet du jour in Hawaii.
"Not ALL alien species are bad, but on most we just don't know what effect they'll have on the environment," said Duggin. "Look at all the money and effort spent to keep a virus out of Hawaii -- rabies. Why aren't we that vigilant about others?"
Not that easy when people are planting pretty vegetation that escapes and consumes native species. Until recently, there was even a society that deliberately brought in birds from all over the world and released them into the local environment, as if Hawaii were a big bird cage. The most notorious example of well-meaning-but-boneheaded species-introduction is the mongoose, brought in to hunt another annoying alien species, rats. Except that rats are nocturnal; mongooses dinural. Doh!
"And there's a problem already on Haleakala from rabbits," said Kay Fullerton, community program manager.
"And there were those dead alligators found in Kailua," said Carla Kishinami, vertebrates collections manager.
"And the caymans in Nuuanu," said Neil Evenhuis, natural sciences chairman. If the big lizards had not been hunted down immediately, we might be up to our okoles in alligators.
Curiously, part of the funding for the exhibit comes from NASA. Does the space agency know more than we do about aliens?
"It comes from protective measures developed by NASA to protect against things like alien introduction from space, and as simple as keeping bats from nesting in launch gantries," said research anthropologist Leslie Hartzell. After all, when the Apollo crew returned from the moon (setting foot on land in Hawaii first) they were kept in closed-environment trailer in case they'd picked up an outer-space bug. Better safe than sorry.
"When we have a lander on Mars, any part that touches the surface has to be handled by a planning protocol that includes infestation," said Hartzell. "If it comes back, it must be contained until we're sure it's safe."
Other exhibits include a 10-most-unwanted list of bad species, puppet shows in which kids follow a narrative about species introduction, the creeping terror of myconia and banana poka, and a Godzilla-sized scorpion animatronic in the act of hunting a spooked-looking giant mouse.
There's a loose coalition of anti-alien allied forces in Hawaii; city, state, private and federal agencies that keep each other hip to new invasions. "We can also act more responsibly as citizens," said Hartzell. "Little things, like properly and honestly filling in declaration forms."
Ironically, when contacted by citizens, state officials tell them to call Bishop Museum with such questions. The irony comes from the fact that the Legislature has wiped out funding for such expert help from Bishop Museum.
"We can no longer afford to provide such services for the state, although state agencies expect it," said Fullerton.
"It's kind of embarrassing, when state officials call up, that we can't spare someone to answer their questions," said Kishinami.
"Now, there's no way to physically do all the stuff the state requires us to do," said Hartzell. "That's very disturbing in an institution that's run as a public service."
The curtailment of state funding for Bishop Museum, the state's official repository of natural science and Hawaiian culture collections, has hurt this new and ambitious exhibit as well, although it should not show. More than 20 Bishop Museum employees were dismissed a couple of weeks ago, some of whom had been at work on "Backyard Aliens."
"We're doing it with long hours and some volunteer labor," said Fullerton.
No state funding also means the price for school groups will go up, said Fullerton. "Too bad, because compared to museums in other states, Bishop Museum has a very good rapport with local educators and students."
"And our scientific relationship with the University (of Hawaii) has been curtailed," said Evenhuis.
Nothing the scientists, curators and educators of Bishop Museum learned while preparing for "Backyard Aliens" was as surprising as discovering the depths of ignorance of Hawaii legislators. Many legislators toured the museum last year -- some for the first time -- on a "legislative awareness day" arranged by the museum.
"Most thought Bishop Museum is part of Bishop Estate," said Evenhuis. In fact, Bishop Estate provides no support for Bishop Museum, and trustee Lokelani Lindsey has purchased artifacts for the estate that compete with the museum's collection.
The big picture is what "Backyard Aliens" provides, and hopefully, it'll make citizens, students -- maybe even a legislator or two -- aware of the cascading, domino effect the introduction of an outside species has on a closed environment.
For example, there are plans afoot to raise orangutans on the Big Island. OK, we can live with that. But they also plan to bring in 300 species of non-native plants to feed them.
"Three hundred new plants! Hard to believe," said Evenhuis. He shook his head again, and this time, he sighed as well.
The Bishop Museum 'Aliens Festival’
When: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 21
Click for online
calendars and events.
