50,000 goats once ravaged Hawaii’s Kahoʻolawe island before eradication

The cultural importance of the island is demonstrated by the some 3,000 archeological and historical sites and features that were documented through 2004.From an island carved by voyagers, farmers and sacred traditions comes the unlikely story of thousands of hungry goats. They grew on Kaho’olawe from a small 18th-century introduction into a herd of perhaps 50,000, stripping the vegetation and hastening erosion over the landscape. Today, the Hawaiian island is the focus of a decades-long effort to restore its ecosystems and cultural heritage. The story of Kahoʻolawe is one of environmental destruction, Indigenous activism and an ongoing effort to bring a sacred landscape back to life, states the Kahoʻolawe Hawaii govt website. According to the website, archeological evidence suggests nativ