Announcements
Endangered Snails Transferred to Bishop Museum’s Pūpū Ola: Kāhuli Captive Rearing Research Center
Endodonta christenseni, the last known surviving member of its genus, arrives at Bishop Museum and will be on public view at the 2025 Kāhuli Festival on October 25.
# Endangered Snails Transferred to Bishop Museum's Pūpū Ola: Kāhuli Captive Rearing Research Center
Endodonta christenseni, the last known surviving member of its genus, will be on public view at the 2025 Kāhuli Festival
Bishop Museum, the State of Hawaiʻi Museum of Natural and Cultural History, recently welcomed Hawaiian land snails believed to be the last known surviving representatives of its genus. 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 Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, 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 (DNLR SEPP).
Through the continued partnership between DNLR SEPP 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. The public will be able to view these rare snails for the first time during Bishop Museum's 4th Annual Kāhuli Festival on Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025.
"These snails embody both fragility and resilience," said Dr. 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."
About Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, the State of Hawaiʻi Museum of Natural and Cultural History
Bishop Museum’s mission is to inspire our community and visitors through the exploration, celebration, and perpetuation of the extraordinary history, culture, and environment of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific. The Museum was founded in 1889 by Charles Reed Bishop in memory of his wife Bernice Pauahi Bishop, a royal descendant of King Kamehameha I. Today, the Museum thrives as an educational center for the community and is widely regarded as the world’s premier institution for Hawaiian and Pacific content.
Bishop Museum’s vast collections of more than 25 million objects and specimens represent nine disciplines and include more than 22 million biological specimens, over 2 million cultural objects, 115,000 historical publications, and 1 million photographs, films, works of art, audio recordings, and manuscripts. These collections tell the stories of the cultures and biodiversity of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific as well as the proud legacy of scholarly research spanning 130 years.
Bishop Museum proudly serves more than 200,000 visitors each year, including 20,000 children on school visits. Guests are encouraged to pre-plan their trip to #HawaiisMuseum with its free digital guide, available through Bloomberg Connects.
To learn more about the Museum’s research, collections, exhibits, and programs, visit BishopMuseum.org, follow @BishopMuseum on Facebook and Instagram, visit Bishop Museum’s YouTube channel, or call (808) 847-3511. Bishop Museum is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Bishop Museum is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer, and welcomes applicants from the military, veterans, and those with disabilities. Learn about careers at Bishop Museum at BishopMuseum.org/Careers and on its LinkedIn page.
Bishop Museum Press is Hawaiʻi’s oldest book publisher and one of the first scholarly publishers in the Western Hemisphere, and has published over 1,200 titles and distributed over 1 million books in 72 countries worldwide. Bishop Museum hosts a restaurant and gift shop on campus, Tūtū’s Place by Highway Inn and Shop Pacifica by Nā Mea Hawaiʻi.