The point of this article is not the human-caused (and ongoing) extinction event of unique island species.
The point here is that a new, healthy, diverse ecosystem has formed in the niche left by the human-induced extermination of a native one, and that this new ecosystem is healthy and diverse and interesting, even thought it is "unnatural" in the sense that it's composed of animals and plants from all over the world which do not normally occur together.
The extinction even goes back a millennium or so.
The new introductions do not.
They follow on motor-powered boat and air travel and the arrival of non-islander humans from all around the world, with pets, garden plants, and accidental introductions.
So this is not about what the original Hawai'ian islanders did: it's about what's happened since that event.
The point of this article is not the human-caused (and ongoing) extinction event of unique island species.
The point here is that a new, healthy, diverse ecosystem has formed in the niche left by the human-induced extermination of a native one, and that this new ecosystem is healthy and diverse and interesting, even thought it is "unnatural" in the sense that it's composed of animals and plants from all over the world which do not normally occur together.
The extinction even goes back a millennium or so.
The new introductions do not.
They follow on motor-powered boat and air travel and the arrival of non-islander humans from all around the world, with pets, garden plants, and accidental introductions.
So this is not about what the original Hawai'ian islanders did: it's about what's happened since that event.