Great Escape

A Snail’s Escape from the Eye of the Storm

Inside the race to save endangered wildlife in Hawaii amid the growing threat of climate-related storms

Aug. 23, 2018 — The Wailuku River flood waters run downstream on the Big Island in Hilo, Hawaii. Hurricane Lane has brought more than a foot of rain to some parts of the Big Island which is under a flash flood warning. Photo by Mario Tama/Getty.

Water and ice are two common staples in most hurricane preparedness kits. Fungus is not.

In the face of advancing hurricane winds of 125 miles per hour, the Snail Extinction Prevention Program (SEPP) in Hawaii evacuated its field lab on Aug. 23. They placed 80 terrariums housing 2,000 rare Hawaiian snails in cardboard file boxes and transported them from a marsh on the northeast side of O`ahu to a downtown Honolulu office building. Along with the snails, a four-member crew packed purified water, mist bottles, medical gloves, several coolers full of ice packs, and an extra large portion of food — the fungus that they had painstakingly cultured in Petri dishes.

“If we get wind gusts over 120 miles per hour, our facility — a 44-foot-long modular trailer — could be damaged, or we’d lose access to the site,” says David Sischo, a wildlife biologist with SEPP.