Contacts
Deborah Ward, Hawai'i Department of Land and Natural Resources, 808/587-0320 or 808/363-0448 (pager)
Joan Jewett, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 808/541-2749 or 503/807-4886 (cell)
Scientists in Hawai‘i say their recent efforts to introduce a rare female Po‘ouli to the only remaining male of the species were a success, even though the birds apparently did not get together.
“We gained a lot of new information,” said Dr. Jim Groombridge, coordinator for the Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project, a partnership of the State of Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the University of Hawai‘i. “We learned more about the Po‘ouli from this attempt than we did in the 30 years since the species was discovered. And we’re in a much better position to decide the birds’ future.”
The Po‘ouli, Melamprosops phaeosoma, is perhaps the world’s rarest bird, with only three known to exist. The two females and one male live in separate home ranges within 1-1/2 miles of each other in the dense rainforest of the State of Hawai‘i’s Hanawi Natural Area Reserve, on the northeast slope of Maui’s Haleakala Volcano. But as far as scientists know, the birds have never met.
Starting in January 2002, Groombridge worked with scientists from the Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the University of Hawai‘i and the Honolulu Zoo to try to bring the male and one of the females together in the hope that they would mate.
“We decided that if we didn’t intervene, these birds might never find each other and the species would go extinct,” said Paul Henson, field supervisor of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Pacific Islands office in Honolulu. “Without intervention, they’re doomed.”
The Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project staff has worked for the past three years to protect the Po‘ouli and improve its chances for survival. A member of the honeycreeper family, the small, stocky brown forest bird with a black bandit’s mask has declined from a population of about 200 when it was discovered in 1973 to the three that remain now. The staff has aggressively controlled invasive weeds and predators such as cats, rats and mongooses, and worked with the state’s Natural Area Reserve System to build 10 miles of pig-proof fencing to protect pristine habitat in the upper 2,000 acres of the Hanawi Natural Area Reserve, where the Po‘ouli and other native Hawaiian forest birds live. But nothing has brought the Po‘ouli together.
“This is another step in the progress we have made in saving the Po‘ouli and other forest birds of Maui,” said Michael Buck, administrator of the DLNR’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife. “Our first task was to protect and restore the habitat that the Po‘ouli and other Maui forest birds need to survive. That is happening.”
The ultimate goal of the recent translocation effort was to create a wild breeding pair of Po‘ouli. But playing Cupid isn’t easy, scientists found. Their plan was to capture a male and female Po‘ouli in a short period of time – no small task – and then introduce them to each other.
Beginning January 7, it took the scientists 42 days of hanging mist nets – special fine-mesh nets that are almost invisible – and trudging through miles of rugged rainforest terrain to finally capture one of the females. The scientists were forced to give up on catching the male, who eluded their month-long attempt to land him in a mist net.
Once they landed the female on April 4, the scientists kept her for a few hours in a holding box developed for the project by Peter Luscomb, general curator of the Honolulu Zoo. The soft enclosure was designed to protect the Po‘ouli from hurting herself if she became nervous and flew wildly against the sides. An avian veterinarian accompanied the scientists just in case the small bird was injured. To the joy of the researchers, the Po‘ouli remained calm and settled down to a meal of wax worms and snails, proving that the very rare bird will eat in captivity. That knowledge is a boon to the efforts to save the Po‘ouli from extinction.
“It shows that the bird can handle this level of management,” said Dr. Eric VanderWerf, a Fish and Wildlife Service biologist. “This gives us more knowledge and confidence to choose an option that people were a little afraid of before. Our thinking now is that if the best option for the Po‘ouli is captive breeding, that’s what we’ll do.”
While the Po‘ouli was in the padded box, Groombridge fitted her with a tiny transmitter so her movements could be tracked. The specially designed transmitter weighs just 0.7 grams so it wouldn’t impair her flying. It had enough battery power for a month.
The researchers then hiked the female Po‘ouli into a site in the male’s home range and set her free just before dark, in the hope that in the morning, she and the male would meet. The researchers were up before dawn with radio telemetry equipment to track the female’s every move. For the first few hours, she flew around in the male’s range but by midday, she was headed home. As far as the scientists know, the two birds didn’t meet.
“We’re disappointed, of course, but we now have more options to consider next year,” Groombridge said. “This shows a lot of promise for the future.”
The research team tracked the female Po‘ouli’s movements for another 10 days until the radio fell off. During that time, scientists were able to unravel some of the mysteries surrounding the Po‘ouli’s behavior for the first time since the species was discovered.
Since mating season has now passed, the scientists don’t plan to try to capture the other female Po‘ouli this year. Over the next year, they will consider whether to try another capture and translocation next spring or whether to try to gather the birds up and place them into a field aviary or bring them into captivity, where they might breed.
“This was an extremely difficult task we set out to do but it was successful in that it provided us with an enormous amount of new information,” Buck said. “This information will help us find the best way to protect this rare species of bird.”
The Po‘ouli was first discovered in 1973 in the rainforest of East Maui at 6,494 feet elevation by college students on a University of Hawai‘i expedition. It was the first new native Hawaiian bird species discovered since 1923. Named by Hawaiian cultural authority Mary Kawena Puku‘i, Po‘ouli means “black-faced” in Hawaiian. Never an abundant species, its population was initially estimated at fewer than 200 birds. The last known Po‘ouli breeding was in 1996.
Fossil evidence indicates Po‘ouli once inhabited other areas of Maui, including drier habitat between 1,500 and 4,500 feet in elevation on the southwestern slope of Haleakala. The bird is unique in that it is the only Hawaiian forest bird known to eat tree snails. Po‘ouli also eat insects, spiders and occasionally fruit.
The Maui Forest Bird Project was created in 1995 to investigate and respond to the decline of Maui’s forest birds. The project’s staff is currently studying food resources, avian disease, predation and competition from introduced species in DLNR’s Hanawi Natural Area Reserve.
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Photographs of the Po‘ouli and an eight-minute Beta SP Format video news release of the translocation project are available.
Dr. Groombridge and Dr. VanderWerf are available for interviews.
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