35 Fun Facts About National Park of American Samoa

Some trails on village land in American Samoa's national park close on which day?

Sunday is kept for church and rest in Samoan culture, so some park trails on village land close that day.

American Samoa's national park holds which distinction?

It is the only unit south of the equator in the US park system, so its seasons are flipped: the wet summer runs from October to May.

Ancient Samoan star mounds, like one on a trail in American Samoa's national park, were built for which chiefs' sport?

Catching pigeons was a chiefly contest: from huts on the mound, rival chiefs used tame decoy pigeons and long-handled nets to catch the most birds.

What kept the federal government from buying American Samoa's park land?

Land is held communally under Samoan tradition by families led by chiefs, so the park leases its land and shares management with village leaders.

Most plants and animals in American Samoa's national park trace their origins to which region?

Southeast Asia is where most species here came from, spreading east island by island, which is why the park has so few kinds of land animals.

The September 2009 tsunami wrecked which facilities of American Samoa's national park?

The visitor centre and main office were left unusable, yet only one NPS staff member or volunteer was hurt.

Humpback whales migrate to the waters of American Samoa's national park mainly to do what?

They come to mate and give birth in warm tropical water, then swim back to their feeding grounds around Antarctica.

American Samoa's national park helps preserve faʻasamoa, a Samoan word meaning what?

The Samoan way of life, faʻasamoa, is why visitors are asked not to eat or drink while walking through a village.

The Mount Alava Adventure Trail in American Samoa's national park has 56 of what?

Ladders, along with 783 steps, take hikers up and down steep ridgelines, which is why the park rates the loop challenging.

How did visitors once ride to Mount Alava's summit?

An aerial cable tramway across Pago Pago Bay ran over a mile from Utulei; in 1980 a US Navy plane hit its cable and crashed at the Rainmaker Hotel.

The naval gun batteries at Breakers and Blunts Points, near American Samoa's national park, date from which war?

World War II fears of a Japanese invasion put the guns there, yet no invasion ever came, and they were left in place once the fears faded.

Pola Island, a basalt sea stack in American Samoa's national park, is also known by what English name?

Cockscomb is its English name; waves have worn its sheer volcanic cliffs, where boobies and frigatebirds nest.

Which coral-eating animal threatens the reefs of American Samoa's national park?

Crown-of-thorns starfish push their stomachs out over living coral and digest it outside their bodies.

Giant clams on the reefs of American Samoa's national park get much of their food from what living inside them?

Algae live in the clam's colourful mantle, so the clam opens its shell by day to let them soak up the sunlight they use to make food.

From 1830, the arrival of which newcomers sped the move of Samoans in villages like Vatia from inland to the coast?

Christian missionaries led by John Williams landed on Savaiʻi in 1830, and the ruling chief Malietoa welcomed them.

How do most banyan trees in American Samoa's national park begin life?

As seeds sprouting on another tree, often left there by birds; the roots grow down around the host, which can die and leave the fig hollow.

Scientists study corals in Ofu Lagoon, part of American Samoa's national park, because they seem to withstand what?

Unusually hot water that stresses corals elsewhere seems to leave these standing, so scientists study them to learn how reefs might cope as oceans warm.

Plainware pottery found at Toʻaga on Ofu, in American Samoa's national park, descends from which ancient culture's pottery?

Lapita potters reached Samoa about 3,000 years ago, and Samoan pottery grew plainer until people stopped making it.

Bristle-thighed curlews that winter in American Samoa's national park fly there from breeding grounds where?

Alaska is where they breed, and like other tuli shorebirds they fly to Samoa to escape the northern winter.

Which French explorer named Samoa the Navigator Islands in 1768?

Louis Antoine de Bougainville's voyage carried the botanist who named the bougainvillea flower after him.

Lata Mountain, in American Samoa's national park, holds which distinction?

The highest point in American Samoa rises to 3,170 feet, high enough to catch about 300 inches of rain a year.

Taʻū, in American Samoa's national park, is home to some of the world's tallest what?

Sea cliffs about 3,000 feet high line Taʻū because part of the island's shield volcano collapsed into the ocean.

Which anthropologist did 1920s fieldwork on Taʻū, published as 'Coming of Age in Samoa'?

Margaret Mead's picture of easygoing Samoan adolescence was later attacked by anthropologist Derek Freeman in books published in 1983 and 1998.

Samoans traditionally regard Saua, a sacred site in American Samoa's national park, as what?

The birthplace of the Polynesian people is how many Samoans see Saua, and oral tradition and archaeology suggest voyagers set out from Samoa to settle other island groups.

What did the Tui Manuʻa refuse to do when Commander Tilley met him in March 1900?

Cede his own lands on Taʻū was the one step he would not take, and Manuʻa signed its own deed of cession only in 1904.

Unusually for a fruit bat, when is the Samoa flying fox mainly active?

During the day it soars on rising warm air, while its cousin the white-naped flying fox flies straight to and from its roosts at dawn or dusk.

Commercial export of the Samoa flying fox as a luxury food ended when it was listed under what in 1990?

CITES Appendix I bars commercial trade, and commercial hunting for export had been the main driver of the bat's steep decline.

The 2020 America the Beautiful quarter for the park shows what on its reverse?

Richard Masters of the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh designed the bats; the coin was released in February 2020.

Which reptile survives in American Samoa only on Taʻū?

The Pacific boa once lived on Tutuila too, where its bones have been found, but that population died out.

What is the only amphibian known in American Samoa, found there only on Tutuila?

The cane toad was brought in deliberately to fight insect pests, and it then spread across all of Tutuila.

Samoans scoop up which reef animal as a delicacy on the few nights a year it spawns?

Palolo worms shed tail segments full of eggs or sperm, which rise to spawn on waning-moon nights in October or November.

The Samoan islands were built by shield volcanoes over a hot spot on which tectonic plate?

The Pacific Plate keeps sliding over the hot spot, so the islands formed one after another and grow younger toward the east.

What did a 2009 US climate report project for American Samoa's reefs?

The reef-forming corals will be lost if carbon dioxide keeps rising, the report projected, as more acidic water, among other stresses, slows their skeleton-building.

What went up on Mount Alava's summit in 1964?

A television transmitter still stands there, and the dirt road built to service it now doubles as the hiking route to the summit.

Which cave-dwelling bat was nearly wiped out in American Samoa by cyclones in 1990 and 1991?

The Pacific sheath-tailed bat depends on caves to roost, but volcanic Tutuila has few suitable caves, so the bat had few places to shelter.