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Last of the po'ouli?

To:
Subject: Last of the po'ouli?
From: Stewart Ford <>
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 20:19:10 +0800
And the caption of the advertisement for the Buick Allure on the same page is "TIMELESS"...

On 02/12/2004, at 16:56, knightl wrote:

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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