At Zoo, a Note of Hope Near-Extinct Songbirds Arrive

By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 4, 1998; Page B01

Once upon a time, in a pristine paradise called the
Hawaiian Islands, there flourished a remarkable array of
exotic birds: azure ibises; fat, flightless moa nalos;
curve-billed akialoas; and a large family of
honeycreepers -- nectar-sipping, swiftly flitting
songbirds in all colors of the rainbow.

Many of these species are extinct, victims of such
predators as rats and wild pigs, runaway vegetation,
human development and especially avian malaria. Among
the honeycreepers, there are fewer than two dozen
varieties left.

But one little bird -- a mousy green amakihi that went
on display yesterday at the National Zoo -- may hold
the key to saving the rest.

According to Robert Fleischer, an evolutionary
geneticist whose laboratory is at the zoo, the
Hawaiian amakihi is far more resistant to malaria than any
other kind of honeycreeper. No one knows why, but Fleischer
and his colleagues hope to isolate the resistant gene
and introduce it into other honeycreepers before they,
too, die out.

"It may be a drab, nondescript bird, but it has a lot
of personality, and for us it is incredibly important,"
said Fleischer, 42, a rumpled, soft-spoken scientist
who put on a sport coat yesterday for the first time in
weeks to greet journalists invited to view the zoo's
new Hawaiian bird exhibit.

In addition to two amakihis, a male and a female, the
exhibit houses three bright orange, nectar-eating i'iwi
and a gray omao thrush, all of which were brought from
Hawaii via the zoo's breeding facility in Front Royal,
Va. There also is a video about research on endangered
Hawaiian birds, a colorful mural and an evolutionary
chart of the honeycreepers.

Fleischer said one of the zoo's major challenges is
getting the amakihis to breed. It's not that they're
shy, he said, but the female is extremely selective,
and she may rebuff several males until she finds one she
likes.

"You have to have the right food, the right heat and
the right pair," he said. "You may put two birds together
and not get any action. It's important to give the
females a choice."

Hopping from branch to branch in their large display
case, the two amakihis seemed oblivious to their
scientific celebrity and their new neighbors in the
Bird House: a family of South African mouse birds, a pair
of New Guinea cockatoos, and a fat blue Victoria crown
pigeon who kept strutting close to visitors in an
open-air miniature rain forest, groaning softly.

Fleischer said that in Hawaii today, there is no
malaria that is dangerous to humans. But in the more remote
highlands, where many honeycreepers and other birds
live, certain mosquitoes spread avian malaria among
birds, and the result can be fatal. Only the amakihi
seems able to survive it, and the zoo's scientists
hope to find the DNA strand that carries the resistant
gene.

"It's such a tragedy. Some of the honeycreepers are
down to several hundred birds in the wild, and we're really
afraid for them," Fleischer said. "I wish I had been
on Maui 2,000 years ago."

AMAKIHI AT THE NATIONAL ZOO

The amakihi is one of three species of songbirds
unique to the Hawaiian Islands that are featured in the National Zoo's new
exhibit.

Scientific name: loxops virens; a member of the
honeycreeper family

Native to: Hawaiian Islands only; builds its nests
above 2,000 feet in forests

Size: Length is 12.5 cm; weight is 13 g

Diet: Insects, nectar, berries

Color: Males are yellow-green; females are dark
olive-green

Staying power: One of the few types of honeycreepers
that is resistant to avian malaria

SOURCES: National Zoo, Grzimek's Animal Life
Encyclopedia

Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company