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Poo-uli Endangered or Extinct? (1 Viewer)

Ok thanks for the information and so there isn't a single bird alive today? For every bird that is facing extinction the world should do something for their survival
 
Foxe said:
Ok thanks for the information and so there isn't a single bird alive today? For every bird that is facing extinction the world should do something for their survival
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Their range was truly miniscule, and their population crashed over the last 10-20 years (the bird has only been known for the last 35 years). Even if there are a few individuals still in existence but undetected, the factors which caused its rapid decline are no doubt still in effect, making its odds of survival near zero even if it were to still exist.
 
bkrownd said:
Also, the last three known birds all lived in three different areas, isolated from one another. Once populations get down into the low hundreds it's just a matter of time...
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Getting down to the low hundreds is not necessarily a death sentence - it all depends on whether the conditions which caused the population decline can be reversed. The Puaiohi on Kauai was undetected for years, and its population may have been below 100, but thanks to intensive recovery efforts its population is now over 300 and it is breeding successfully in the wild. The Drepanidids seem to be particularly sensitive to introduced threats, however, and I guess rats were the most likely (or at least the final) culprit for the Po'ouli.

Foxe said:
It's sad that they're gone or if there is still a few of them left in existence but undetected there may be a hope that the bird might make a comeback
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Actually, the Po'ouli's best hope now is that technology will one day allow cloning of a bird from its DNA. Samples have been carefully preserved in a "frozen zoo" for that purpose.
 
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emupilot said:
Getting down to the low hundreds is not necessarily a death sentence - it all depends on whether the conditions which caused the population decline can be reversed. The Puaiohi on Kauai was undetected for years, and its population may have been below 100, but thanks to intensive recovery efforts its population is now over 300 and it is breeding successfully in the wild.
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That one's a bit of an abberation. Don't count your puaiohi before they hatch. All it takes is one new disease or predator or hurricane and...poof! One thing to keep in mind about "undetected for years" is that people didn't start looking very hard or consistently until recently. Captive breeding programs for the small birds could be critical, but who knows how difficult it will be to get captive bred specialists to be successful in the wild. Works for this species, but perhaps not for others. Odds are we haven't seen the last extinction (from the wild).
 
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emupilot said:
Getting down to the low hundreds is not necessarily a death sentence - it all depends on whether the conditions which caused the population decline can be reversed. The Puaiohi on Kauai was undetected for years, and its population may have been below 100, but thanks to intensive recovery efforts its population is now over 300 and it is breeding successfully in the wild. The Drepanidids seem to be particularly sensitive to introduced threats, however, and I guess rats were the most likely (or at least the final) culprit for the Po'ouli.



Actually, the Po'ouli's best hope now is that technology will one day allow cloning of a bird from its DNA. Samples have been carefully preserved in a "frozen zoo" for that purpose.
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I think the understorey destruction by pigs in East Maui, combined with a loss of the endemic snails on which the Po'ouli fed were perhaps the major factors although direct predation of nests and adults by rats etc may also have been a problem.

Its a pity that the critical habitat could not have been fenced off earlier and the pigs excluded from a wider area. At least the existing exclusion fencing should help habitat recovery for the Maui Parrotbill.
 
Foxe said:
Ok thanks for the information and so there isn't a single bird alive today? For every bird that is facing extinction the world should do something for their survival
Click to expand...

I am only just becoming aware of just how big a task that is Foxe.

I am painfully working my way through Birdlife International's Threatened Birds of the World. The 1,186 species included tell a very sorry and disheartening tale.

Incidentally of the po'o-uli it says...

This species is on the brink of extinction. .....
.... Since its discovery, it has undergone a dramatic population reduction equivalent to c.80% over 10 years, perhaps 50% over the last 5 years.

That was published in 2000 so I am not surprised at the later info referred to here indicating that the pattern continues.

I am a life hardened, sometimes cynical middle aged man but this book can still make me weep! A tome of biblical proportions to the shame of us all.

(Raises a glass to absent friends.) :(
 
Very sad...having birded in Hawaii, I always keep an eye on the status of the endemics...avian malaria seems to be the main problem, out of the many....

I'd say the chances of the O'u surviving are probably higher than the Po'ouli, which sadly, I think is gone.

Is there any news on the O'u recently, by any chance?

Ken
 
Kenbell said:
Is there any news on the O'u recently, by any chance?
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The last sighting was 1989, before Hurricane Iniki tore up Kaua'i. Last heard on Hawai'i in 1988. It's gone.

A friend of mine recently told me the story about how he was present for the last official sighting of the 'o'u, and was the only person in the party who didn't see it.
 
bkrownd said:
A friend of mine recently told me the story about how he was present for the last official sighting of the 'o'u, and was the only person in the party who didn't see it.
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Speaking of which, the audio/video library at www.animalbehaviorarchive.org worked for once in a blue moon yesterday, and I was finally able to hear the 'o'u and 'o'o sing through the magic of the internet. The 'o'u (a finchy honeycreeper) was a fairly nice singer. However, the 'o'o (a honeyeater) was flutey and resonant unlike anything else we have left here, including the comical i'iwi. The Hawaiian forests would sound so much different if the honeyeaters were still with us.
 
I went to a talk on the forest bird status at the volcano park last night. The news is still pretty grim. He gave the status of the maui nukupu'u as 'extinct' - I wasn't sure about that one before, because sightings have historically been very sporadic on difficult terrain. However, surveying is now infinitely more comprehensive than it was just 10-20 years ago. They have shifted this year's bird survey effort to Kaua'i because there is some evidence that both 'akikiki *AND* 'akeke'e numbers are falling fast. The news on the 'akeke'e is particularly disturbing. Some people were in attendance from the captive breeding facility, and it doesn't sound like they have the resources to tackle breeding programs for these species right now.

(Meanwhile the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which does a good fraction of the rare bird conservation, is having budget cuts.)

http://www.abcbirds.org/media/releases/akekee.htm
 
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I don't know much about specific habitat on kaua'i or maui, but in general any habitat that isn't actively managed for removal of vermin such as rats, cats, pigs, goats, sheep, cattle, deer, melastomes, strawberry guava, australian tree fern, lilikoi, etc is going to be in continual decline, and the vermin are always on the march, invading new areas. This means increasing nest predation, habitat alteration, loss of food sources, increasing alien species competition, increasing mosquito breeding habitat, increasing disease exchange with disease-carrying invasives, etc. Lots of dynamics. They are surveying kaua'i this month, so there may be some new clues soon. Mosquitoes and malaria will also adapt to higher elevation environments in due time.

Also, species do have up and down cycles. That's part of the reason they seem to decline episodically into extinction. The palila has been riding the see-saw for decades.
 
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I went to Kauii 3 years ago.

I was lucky enough to see all the endemic species of passerine on the island, with a walk through the Alakai Swamp, with Dave Kuhn.

Even then he said that Akikiki were so few in number that he was very worried about their long-term survivial.

The Akeke'e was also hard to see, and we only saw it on the way ot of the swamp.

The Puaiohi were certainly recovering after the hurricane, which had wiped out their bigger cousin, mainly because they tend to be found in heltered gullies and not in the tops of the trees.

The thing that has saved most of the bird on Kauaii until now I guess is that many species live above the height of most mosquitoes.

However, he seemed to think the mosquitoes were appearing higher up than before. For an area that contained so many very special birds, it seemed to get an awful lot of disturbance.

I am not sure what effect goats were having on vegetation, but it couldn't be good.

I hope that they can prevent any further species from extinction through captive-breeding.

In the case of the Po'ouli, I think they tried to capture the three birds and relocate them in an aviary in the area where the snails were still plentiful and the ground cover was protected from the feral pigs, but although they captured one, it quickly died.

There is an excellent site on Hawaiian birds:

http://www.birdinghawaii.co.uk/

Sean

Hiroshima
 
emupilot said:
It's very disturbing to hear about the 'akeke'e. IIRC, its population tends to fluctuate alot - assuming the decline is permanent, what could be changing rapidly in the environment to cause the decline?
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From what I heard yesterday, the recent decline of 'akeke'e and 'akikiki populations on Kaua'i was confirmed by this May's survey. No specific cause was identified.
 
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