Posted on: Sunday, October 6, 2002
Death revives donkey debate
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Staff Writer
KA'UPULEHU, Hawai'i — If you look hard enough, you can see history trudging across the barren lava fields above the coastal resorts here.
The floppy-eared remnants of the last herd of Big Island wild donkeys descend from the Kona Nightingales, which carried the Kona coffee industry on their backs in the 1900s.
Today, these animals are a cultural icon, a living monument to Kona's heritage and a curio for camera-clicking tourists.
They are also traffic hazards.
A fatal accident last month on Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway north of Kona airport drove that point home. A 29-year-old Puna man died Sept. 18 from injuries after his motorcycle struck and killed a wild donkey near the Hualalai Resort.
Witnesses said the motorcycle was moving fast and passing other southbound vehicles shortly before the crash on a section of road with "donkey crossing'' signs posted.
Some say the death is a wake-up call, not only to safeguard the growing number of motorists using Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway, but also to protect a herd that is dwindling partly because of accidents on the busy road.
A committee of government officials, landowners, developers and volunteers has been meeting for eight years in hopes of preserving the donkeys, which now number about 30.
The Donkey Committee's latest proposal is to establish a 300-acre sanctuary on the mauka side of the highway on Kamehameha Schools land.
Fencing for the project could cost $100,000, not to mention the need for maintenance and supplemental feed and water. It's not clear where the money would be found.
Miles Nakahara, a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and an adviser to the Donkey Committee, said he remains optimistic about the project.
"The land is available, and the donkey advocates are very vocal,'' Nakahara said. "(The donkeys) mean so much to Kona's heritage.''
The donkeys' nickname dates to the start of the Kona coffee plantations, when donkeys were imported to help transport the harvest from the highlands to the ocean over rugged terrain. Every evening, the donkeys brayed from farm to farm, earning them the name Kona Nightingales.
After World War II, military jeeps took over as the new workhorse for coffee farmers. Many of the donkeys were released into the scrublands on the side of Hualalai Volcano.
A half-century later, the only remaining wild herd grazes and drinks rainwater that collects in rocks near the Hualalai Resort, Four Seasons Hotel and Kona Village Resort.
These creatures, seemingly alien to Hawai'i, have gained some friends in the coffee industry and other area businesses, which have borrowed the donkey image in logos and names, such as the Bad Ass Coffee Co.
Longtime residents, some of whom can remember riding the donkeys as kids, have rallied to protect the animals' right to roam wild.
During construction of the Four Seasons Hotel at Hualalai, for example, the community pushed for measures that gave the donkeys access to feeding grounds and a watering hole in and around a golf course.
Nevertheless, the donkeys continue to be squeezed by development. The highway is their greatest threat, according to Peggy Sankot, a Kona Village massage therapist and Donkey Committee member who said the animals cross the busy road at least twice a day, at dawn and dusk.
"The highway is the predator,'' Sankot said. "This is the last wild herd. It's crazy. They deserve better than this.''
Sankot said more than 100 donkeys have been killed by traffic in the last four years. Three adult donkeys and a baby died last month, she said, including the adult killed in the motorcycle accident and a baby that Kona Village employees tried to save over Labor Day weekend.
The only other human death linked to the animals occurred in 1977, when a man crashed his car after veering to avoid a donkey crossing the highway, Sankot said.
She said she was frustrated with lack of progress by the committee, which she helped start eight years ago. Ideas have been discussed, including relocating the donkeys, fencing the highway, putting them up for adoption and establishing sanctuaries. But nothing has come to fruition.
"No one seems to want to get anything done. Nobody wants to take responsibility,'' she said.
Nakahara said the issues involved are complex, involving multiple land owners and government agencies. A proposal to erect fencing along the highway went all the way to the state attorney general. "Things take a long time to get processed,'' he said.
But the fatal crash may serve as a catalyst toward creation of a sanctuary, said Bob Lindsey, who manages Big Island agriculture and conservation lands for Kamehameha Schools.
Lindsey said lessee PIA Kona Limited Partnership, whose primary business is golf courses, had agreed to set aside the middle portion of Ka'upulehu ahupua'a, from Mamalahoa Highway down to Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway, for the donkeys.
The Kona Village Resort, led by long-time donkey friend and protector Fred Duerr, the resort's general manager, also wants to build a paddock for a half-dozen members of the herd, Lindsey said. And some of the animals might be moved to pasture land in South Kona, he said.
Sankot said she hopes something is accomplished soon, for the animals' sake.
"People from Kona are so attached to these animals," she said. "But if you see one lying on the road, it's just so sad. It's terrible.''
Reach Timothy Hurley at thur ley@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.
