http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20041201.wbird1201/
BNStory/specialScienceandHealth
Wednesday, Dec 1, 2004
Last known bird in Hawaiian species dies
Honolulu — One of Earth's rarest birds might have gone into extinction
following the death of one of the last known po'ouli.
The aging male po'ouli died in captivity on Friday, the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service said this week, after recently contracting avian
malaria. The exact cause of death will not be known until tests from
the necropsy are completed.
The remaining two po'ouli, believed to be a male and a female, have not
been seen for nearly a year. They may also have died, moved to another
area or have just been missed by wildlife officials.
“This species was a unique part of Earth's history,” said Eric
VanderWerf, the Fish and Wildlife Service's Hawaiian bird recovery
co-ordinator. “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.”
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.
The state, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Zoological Society of
San Diego, which operates the Maui conservation centre, began a search
this week to find the remaining two po'ouli in the remote rainforests
of Maui.
The small, stocky, brown bird with a partial black face described as a
bandit's mask was discovered in 1973 by a group of University of Hawaii
students conducting research on the east slope of Haleakala volcano. It
has its own genus and is the only Hawaiian forest bird to rely heavily
on native tree snails for food.
Tissue samples from the dead bird were saved for cryogenic preservation
for possible cloning in the future.
“Some day, when technology catches up with our fantasies, we may be
able to resurrect the po'ouli because we saved these cells,” Mr.
Lieberman said.
The po'ouli's numbers have dwindled because of habitat loss and
introduced predators such as rats, cats and mongoose. Nonnative
diseases carried by mosquitoes have also taken a toll on the Hawaiian
birds.
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