Northwestern Hawaiian Islands · HI
Laysan
An island stripped bare by rabbits, now recovering.
- Size
- 1,016 acres
- Rabbits released
- 1894
- Last rabbits removed
- 1923
Then
- 1857
Captain John Paty annexes Laysan to the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.
- 1890
Guano mining begins.
- 1894
Mining boss Max Schlemmer releases rabbits. They strip the island, and three endemic birds go extinct.
- 1909
Theodore Roosevelt makes the chain a bird sanctuary.
- 1923
The Tanager Expedition kills the last rabbits.
Now
Laysan is uninhabited and managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service. The endangered Laysan duck and Laysan finch live here.