State to try catching, saving rarest bird

By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau

State wildlife officials plan to use fine-mesh mist nets and bird calls to capture the last three members of America's most endangered bird species, the po'ouli.

Michael Buck, administrator of the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife, said yesterday the operation would take place during the breeding season, in February, when the birds are more active and likely to be caught.

Meanwhile, officials have begun preparing an aviary at the Maui Bird Conservation Center in Olinda for the rare Hawaiian honeycreeper.

Officials with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, Fish and Wildlife Service and Zoological Society of San Diego announced last week that the last known po'ouli would be brought into captivity in what they describe as a last-ditch effort to save the species from extinction.

The three birds live in separate home ranges separated by no more than 1 1/2 miles in the dense, rugged rain forest of the state Hanawi Natural Area Reserve on the northeast slopes of Haleakala.

Buck said officials are hopeful they can bring all three birds into captivity, after capturing one of the them last year, a female, in an operation designed to unite two of the po'ouli. They failed to capture the male, however, after 400 hours of net time, he said. The odds of successful breeding in captivity are not great, but it's the best hope for the species, he said.

Officials have collected hundreds of hours of videotape of the birds in the wild, and prepared a five-minute trailer they hope to have broadcast by a media outlet such as the National Geographic or Discovery Channel, to bring the po'ouli's story to a wider audience.

"It's the most compelling story in the state, as far as biodiversity is concerned,'' Buch said.

The small brown bird was first identified in 1973 in the upper rain forest of East Maui by students on a University of Hawai'i expedition. It was estimated then that there were 200 po'ouli in all.