Two endangered Hawaiian hawks returning to Islands

By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

HILO, Hawai'i — A pair of endangered Hawaiian hawks that were captured in forests in Kona and shipped to the Mainland years ago are about to return to Hawai'i to the Honolulu Zoo.

The two hawks are among 10 that were sent to Mainland zoos as part of a captive breeding program, but five of the birds later died.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service took the unusual step of capturing and removing the birds in 1997 after hawks were suspected of killing five other endangered birds, the 'alala or Hawaiian crow, in South Kona that year.

There were 15 'alala left in the wild at the time, and all five birds killed had been raised in captivity and released in an attempt to boost the wild crow population.

Biologists intervened to try to stop the attacks, initially by trapping the hawks, or 'io, and moving the birds to Volcano. But the hawks quickly returned to the forests at McCandless Ranch in South Kona.

Ten 'io were finally captured and shipped to the Louisville Zoo, the Memphis Zoo and Natural Encounters, Inc., a Florida company that specializes in bird training and exhibitions, said Marilet Zablan, acting assistant field supervisor for endangered species in the Pacific Island Office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Zablan said the primary purpose of capturing the hawks was "to try to establish captive breeding of the 'io in the event that we needed to do that for this endangered species," she said.

Zablan acknowledged the deaths of the 'alala were a concern, but "normally we would never capture and remove one endangered species in favor of another one," she said.

Apart from the captive breeding effort, the state and federal permits allowing the trapping of the hawks permitted creating educational displays to promote conservation of the species, she said.

Two of the captured hawks died soon after arriving on the Mainland, Zablan said. Three others have died since then, and Zablan said she did not immediately have information on whether any were successfully bred.

Among those hawks were a male and a female that were sent to the Louisville Zoo, and now the zoo has offered to return the pair to Hawai'i.

Ken Redman, director of the Honolulu Zoo, said the plan is to place the hawks in a remodeled exhibit, with the focus on the endangered nene goose.

The hawks would be in a part of the exhibit that will depict predators that feed on the nene. When the exhibit opens early next year, Redman said it will mark the first time in his 13 years at the zoo that 'io have been on display there.

Reach Kevin Dayton at (808) 935-3916 or kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com.