hello tweets,

sad news follows ...

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http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/12/01/special_reports/science_technology/14_51_0211_30_04.txt

Death of rare bird leaves species' future uncertain

By: JAYMES SONG - Associated Press

HONOLULU -- One of the rarest birds on Earth came
closer to being wiped out -- if not already extinct --
with the death of one of the last three believed to
exist, officials said.

The male po'ouli bird died in captivity late Friday,
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday.

"This species was a unique part of Earth's history,"
said Eric VanderWerf, the Fish and Wildlife Service's
Hawaiian bird recovery coordinator. "We'll never have
another one like it if it disappears. I kind of liken
it in someway to the loss of the Mona Lisa or the
Sistine Chapel. If we lost that, we could never get it
back. We can never get another one."

The rare Hawaiian honeycreeper had been kept at the
Maui Bird Conservation Center in Olinda since it was
captured for breeding on Sept. 9. Biologists failed to
capture a mate for the aging bird, which was found in
the Hanawi Natural Area Reserve.

"It was very sad news and it's certainly a serious
blow for the recovery for this species," said
VanderWerf. "The chances of success were low to begin
with because we only had three birds, now we only have
two."

The remaining two po'ouli, believed to be a male and a
female, haven't been seen for nearly a year. They
might have died, moved to another area or missed by
wildlife officials.

Even if the two birds are located, they still must be
caught and successfully bred. It is also uncertain if
the birds are male and female.

But biologists aren't giving up hope.

The state, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the
Zoological Society of San Diego, which operates the
Maui conservation center, launched a search Tuesday to
find the remaining two po'ouli in the remote
rainforests of Maui.

"There's so many things going against this effort that
(the death) makes it all very much more desperate, but
no one is giving up on it," said Alan Lieberman, the
Zoological Society's avian conservation coordinator.
"As long as there's a chance that there are two, a
male and female, no one is willing to throw in the
towel."

The po'ouli is part of the Hawaiian honeycreeper
family and is so unique is has its own genus. It was
not discovered until 1973, when a group of University
of Hawaii students conducting research on the east
slope of Haleakala volcano sited a bird they had never
seen before.

It is the only Hawaiian forest bird to rely heavily on
native tree snails as its food. The small, stocky,
brown bird has a partial black face described as a
bandit's mask.

It is possible the po'ouli that died Friday was the
last one, making it one of the rare opportunities
where scientists were able to document the moment a
species became extinct.

"This unfortunately is an opportunity for people to
say, 'I know the hour, the day, the hour, the minute,
the second, it went extinct,"' Lieberman said. "That
is a sobering moment."

Tissue samples from the bird were saved for cryogenic
preservation for possible cloning in the future.

"Someday, when technology catches up with our
fantasies, we may be able to resurrect the po'ouli
because we saved these cells," Lieberman said.

The po'ouli's numbers have dwindled from a rough
estimate of 150 because of habitat loss and introduced
predators like rats, cats and mongoose. Nonnative
diseases carried by mosquitos, such as avian malaria,
have also taken a toll on the Hawaiian birds.

The po'ouli that recently died contracted avian
malaria, but the exact cause of death won't be known
until tests from the necropsy are completed.

"It's on the verge of extinction for a reason,"
Lieberman said. "Let's recognize those reasons and do
something about it, because that's where the
difference will be made. Not what's killed this bird,
but what killed this species."

Despite the bird's death, capturing it was the right
decision, scientists said. It was old and missing one
eye, compromising its ability to survive in the wild.

"I don't think it was a mistake," VanderWerf said. "If
we had left the birds where they were, the species
would certainly gone extinct. It may anyway, but I
think that was really the only option we had at the
time."


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Devorah A. N. Bennu, PhD
Independent Scholar and
Research Associate,
American Museum of Natural History
birdologist [at] yahoo [dot] com
public blog: http://girlscientist.blogspot.com

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