Effort to save Maui bird stirs controversy
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer
A team of scientists will venture by helicopter into the remote Hanawi rainforest on Maui next week in a controversial last-ditch effort to save the tiny forest bird known as the po'ouli.
Advertiser library photo • March 7, 1998
Only three of the one-ounce birds are known to exist, and their home terrains don't overlap. They are so isolated that there is some evidence they have lost their species identity. One of the po'ouli has been spotted feeding the chicks of another Hawaiian forest bird, its cousin species, the Maui parrotbill, said Eric VanderWerf, Hawai'i bird recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Scientists hope to capture the remaining po'ouli, such as the one shown, to preserve the species.
VanderWerf and others admit that the likelihood is slim that they'll be able to save the species, but they are convinced they have to try. The scientific community is deeply divided on how best to go about it, and VanderWerf admits there's no consensus on the plan his team will undertake next week.
His group hopes to capture the three birds one by one, and take them from the Hanawi forest to the Maui Bird Recovery Center at Olinda, where they would be kept in large screened cages and cared for by Hawaiian forest bird experts from the San Diego Zoological Society. The birds would be allowed to meet, and officials hope two of them would form a bond and mate.
Among those opposed to that plan is Tonnie Casey, an ornithologist who was on the team that first discovered the birds in 1973 and is now a wildlife biologist with Kamehameha Schools. There is far too high a risk that the three adult po'ouli might die from stress if pulled from the wild into captivity and away from their home forests, she said.
Casey's preferred option is to capture the birds and bring them into large netted enclosures in the forest, where they can see their home environments, hear familiar forest sounds and be provided with fresh food collected from the woods where they normally forage.
"The route of hard captivity, that is capturing a bird and bringing them one by one into the Maui Bird Conservation Facility leaves very little room for recovery," she said.
San Diego Zoological Society officials estimated last year that the fatality rate during the first month of captivity for a bird like the po'ouli could be as high as 40 percent. The society has agreed to participate despite the risk.
In the end, the birds are so rare that the money and effort might better be spent on Hawaiian forest birds that still have a chance, said Sheila Conant, ornithologist and chair of the University of Hawai'i zoology department.
"I've seen this happen too many times. I think the chances of success are very small," she said. "I personally would rather see the Fish and Wildlife Service putting all this time and money into planning a program for the 'akiapola'au."
There are about 1,100 of these endangered Big Island birds left, she said.
State forester Michael Buck said that making the decision with respect to the po'ouli has been exceedingly troubling.
"What is our responsibility?" Buck said. "There is no manual anywhere that tells you how to deal with this. No one in the country deals with an issue like we're dealing with here. When we sat down to work out the final issue, all the options stunk."
Last year, officials captured one bird, believed to be a female, and brought it to the territory of one believed to be male. Once it was released, the bird flew right back to its own habitat without any apparent contact with the other bird.
Po'ouli are primarily insect and snail-eating honeycreepers. Males and females are similar in appearance, having a black face, brown backs and gray undersides. Their name means black face. When a group of University of Hawai'i students first spotted them in 1973, the total population was estimated at 200. Disease, habitat loss, and predators like rats and mongooses are believed to be among the major causes of the decline.
The three surviving birds are at least 7 years old.
"We don't know how much longer they might live," VanderWerf said. "And we don't know how much reproductive lifespan they have left."
He said the option of an aviary in the forest was considered, but set aside for three main reasons: the danger of severe weather that could damage a field aviary; the possibility of predators like rats or mongooses getting to the birds, which could not escape; and the limited ability to monitor the birds or get veterinary help quickly.
"There is a tradeoff," he said. "The more natural (the setting) is, the more risk."
Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.
