Abstract
Decline of land snails on the Ogasawara Islands was studied. In Hahajima, major alien predators such as Euglandina rosea and Platydemus manokwari are not present, but some small endemic snails, for example, Hirasea spp. and Ogasawarana spp., are already rare and more common endemic snails, for example, Mandarina spp., are also declining in the northern mountains. The decline cannot be directly explained by forest deforestation and by its subsequent regeneration. Three species of flatworms were found to eat small snails under captive conditions. The distribution of these flatworms is restricted to the northern mountains of Hahajima where Mandarina is declining and its survival is low. These predators are plausible candidates as a cause of the decline of the endemic snails.
Reprinted from Okochi I, Sato H, Ohbayashi T (2004) Biodiversity and Conservation 13:1465–1475, with permission of Springer.
Received 10 September 2002; accepted in revised form 29 May 2003
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Dr. Kiyonori Tomiyama, Dr. Taiji Kurozumi, Dr. Satoshi Chiba, Dr. Masahiro Kawakatsu, and Mr. Kenji Totani for their suggestions and help. We also thank Mr. Takaya Yasui, Mr. Nathaniel Savory Jr., Mr. Fuyuo Nobushima, Mr. Koji Takeuchi, Dr. Kiyoshi Okutomi, Dr. Takenari Inoue, Mr. Hideki Irei, Ms. Keiko Takano, Dr. Simon Lawson and colleagues of the National Forest Division of Ogasawara General Office. This study was funded by the Environment Agency of Japan.
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Okochi, I., Sato, H., Ohbayashi, T. (2010). The cause of mollusk decline on the Ogasawara Islands. In: Kawakami, K., Okochi, I. (eds) Restoring the Oceanic Island Ecosystem. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-53859-2_3
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