Posted at 2:04 p.m., Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Two nene born in Canada
Associated Press
WINNIPEG, Manitoba — The population of the endangered Hawaiian goose has grown by two with the birth of pair of nene at the Assiniboine Zoo.The goslings, born three weeks ago to the zoo's resident pair of nene, will be sent to another zoo.
"There is a waiting list, so we will have to see who asks first," said Bill Wrigley, curator of the Assiniboine Zoo, which has been breeding nene for decades.
The nene's closest relative is the Canadian goose.
"The thought is that some of them, when they were migrating, got lost when they were coming in along the west coast of North America and ended up in Hawaii and started to breed there," Wrigley said.
Each year at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island, only 12 to 15 goslings survive long enough to be added to the flock of 150 nene that live in and around the park. Just 1,300 nene have been identified across the state.
