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ARTICLES ON HAWAIIAN AND PACIFIC BIRDS, BIRDWATCHING AND WILDLIFE

Po'ouli Dies In Captivity - The Last Of A Kind?

This species was first found in 1973 by University of Hawai`i students in the northeastern (wet) slope of Haleakala, Maui. Nine individuals were found at this first sighting. Possible Po`ouli bones found in 1982 led scientists to believe that they once existed in the southwest (dry) slopes of Haleakala. There are no other records of this bird’s history. It is believed that by 2005 only three Po`ouli still existed, all in the Hanawi Natural Area Reserve on Maui. Loss of habitat, predation, and lack of food sources were the primary threats to their survival. It was primarily a bird of the undergrowth and understorey of Ohia forest. Much of its habitat has been destroyed by pigs and the future was very uncertain for this, the most recently discovered Hawaiian Forest bird. The Po`ouli was listed as an endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on September 25, 1974.

This rare forest bird was of the "honeycreeper" family and spent most of its time foraging in native forests. The species once travelled in small family groups, the Po`ouli gleaned leaves and bark in the sub-canopy and understorey of forests searching for snails, spiders, and insects. The Po`ouli lived in elevations of 5,000 feet and above. The Po`ouli bred from February to June, and usually laid one or two eggs. The given modern Hawaiian name of Po'ouli referred to its dark head markings.

In 1999 after years of habitat protection and alien plant and animal control, plans were finally put into action to try and make a physical attempt at saving the species from extinction, however this would involve capturing at least two of the remaining three individuals. The Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project sent a crew into the Hanawi Natural Area Reserve on Maui on an initial 10-day field trip which involved setting up camp and getting prepared for the mission. Because the three surviving birds lived in different areas of Hanawi, the crew attempted to catch them in mist nets and equip them with tiny radio transmitters to help locate them and track their movements. The plan was that after the male's whereabouts had been determined, a female would be captured and transported to the male's neighborhood. She would travel in style because experiments with catching and moving other Maui creepers determined that the female poouli would make the journey better in a custom-built, padded box fitted with a perch instead of the usual cloth bird bag inside a container. She would be carried by the crew on foot rather than via helicopter. From there, nature would have to take its course.

In January 2002 further field trips managed to locate the male on three consecutive days, quite a feat in itself, and on one occasion the bird flew within 20 feet of the mist nets, however ultimately it was not captured.

In April 2002 The Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project successfully translocated a female Po'o-uli into the male's homerange. After 42 days of intensive effort in the Hanawi rainforest, the HR1 Po'ouli was caught on April 4th, 2002. She was fitted with a transmitter and released near the most recent resights of the male. The female was captured at 1.55pm and checked for health and translocated to the release site, where it arrived at 3.30pm. She was released at 7.10pm in the male's homerange, to encourage her to roost nearby that night. Whilst in the holding cage she was offered several food items and was seen to eat waxworms and succineid snails. Signals from the transmitter confirmed that she roosted nearby that night. During the course of the day she moved in a slow north-east direction - towards her homerange! By mid-morning, she had flown over the ridge above Kuhiwa Valley. By that evening, a strong signal from the radio transmitter from the center of HR1 indicated that she had returned to her homerange.

In October 2003 Scientists again made efforts to capture the Po'ouli. If the bird was captured successfully and judged to be healthy and not overly stressed, team members would then hike with the bird to the nearest helicopter landing zone, where it would be picked up and flown with an avian veterinarian to the Maui Bird Conservation Center in Olinda. The facility – like the Keauhou Bird Conservation Center on the Big Island – is operated by the Zoological Society of San Diego. “Establishing a breeding pair of po`ouli may be the most challenging task we've ever attempted,” said Alan Lieberman, avian conservation coordinator for the Zoologica Society. “We have successfully bred several Hawaiian bird species, including the `alala, puaiohi, and palila, and even reintroduced them into the wild, but to start off with only three birds, all of which are at least 6 years old, just increases the difficulties.” “We had hoped these birds could be recovered in the wild,” he continued. "But now we're running out of time, and we're committed to this last ditch effort to prevent their extinction.” This time the efforts also ended in unsuccessful capturing, with no birds caught.

During the 2003 Christmas Bird Count a single individual was observed three times in the Hanawi area of Maui by The Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project participants, this was the second time this species had been seen during an Audubon Christmas bird count.

Finally on September 9th 2004 a single female was captured and the capture team were making plans to capture the last known male and second female from the forest. The female was captured at 4:20 p.m. Thursday in a mist net strung up on poles in parts of the forest where she had been observed and was captured on the first day of the recent capture efforts. Once she was trapped, she was transferred to a cloth cage that was placed in a special tent equipped with monitors next to the crew's cabin. "She was amazingly calm, but she was having a good nip at them (as she was moved)," said Swinnerton, one of the capture team. Because the poouli made it comfortably through the night, the decision was made to fly her down the following morning. Swinnerton said Pacific Helicopters picked them up at 7 a.m. and just made it out before the clouds overwhelmed the forest as they so frequently do. The bird was taken to the conservation center in Olinda where she was placed in quarantine to acclimatise her to her new, more restrictive surroundings. She apparently had a damaged eye, which could also hinder her future survival, whether in captivity or in the wild.

The recovery team would be back in the forest later in September to try to capture the second female, however leaving the lone male alone because he had become leery of humans. They hoped that after a period of relative peace, he'd be easier to catch. The San Diego Zoo had experienced success with breeding several related Hawaiian forest birds, but the po'ouli would be a challenge, both because it was genetically quite distinct from most of the other Hawaiian honeycreepers and because there were so few to work with.

On November 28th 2004 the sad news was released that the bird being kept in captivity had died, and that as the remaining two birds had not been seen for several months, that the species may actually have become extinct. There is a still the hope that the remaining male and female bird, left in the Maui forest are still alive and managing to survive, however with the extirpation of one of only three birds, the future looks extremely bleak for this unique species.

"The tragic death of this bird means that we may now be too late to prevent the addition of Po'o-uli to the depressingly long list of recent extinctions in Hawaii. It should serve as a wake-up call to redouble our efforts to save Hawaii's threatened species, in particular the 12 species listed as Critically Endangered." said Dr Stuart Butchart, Global Species Programme Coordinator, BirdLife International.

"Hawaii's bird extinction crisis is a global tragedy that is largely being ignored. That the world's wealthiest nation is allowing bird extinctions to continue, largely unchecked, in its own back yard is unconscionable." said Dr George H Fenwick, President, American Bird Conservancy.

Link: Po'ouli Article

Link: FWS Po'ouli

Link: Maui Forest Bird Group

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