Tanager Expedition

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The 1923 Tanager Expedition, under Captain Samuel Wilder King of the USS Tanager, was a survey of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and their plant and animal life, as well as their geology. They then traveled to the Marshall and Line Islands. Archaeologist Kenneth Emory who later worked at the Bishop Museum for sixty years, was a member of the expedition, as was the noted herptologist Chapman Grant.

Over 100 archaeological sites were found and documented, including ancient religious sites and houses on Nihoa and Necker Island. Numerous new species were discovered and named, such as the Laysan Finch. Many specimens of endangered species were captured and brought back to laboratories as well. The crew also were one of the few people in history to witness a species extinction. When they spent a month on Laysan studying the endemic Laysan Apapane, a violent and sudden storm ravaged the island. After the storm, the crew concluded that the last three specimens of the Apapane had been killed in the storm.

The expedition also exterminated the last of the rabbits that devoured vegetation and caused extinction on Laysan.