Protect Hawaii's Native Species and Ecosystems

	Hawaii Nature Guides.Net is an educational site devoted to preserve plants and animals that represent the diversity of life in Hawaii. By informing the public, our goal is to protect and save the rare and vulnarable species for future generations.

Hawaii's Species of
Greatest Conservation Need
Flora Fauna

Native Hawaiian
Forest Bird Videos

Captive Propagation
Hawaii's Endangered Bird Conservation Program
This program began in 1993. It is a partnership between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the State of Hawaii, the Zoological Society of San Diego, the Peregrine Fund and private landowners. The captive propagation facilities operate on Maui and Hawaii. Bird by bird, these two centers are trying to hold back the tide of extinction that has already carried off about three quarters of Hawaii's endemic bird species.

Of the 32 species that remain, 24 are endangered! The program is concentrating on saving 12 out of these 24 species:
Amakihi, i'iwi, apapane, akohekohe, hawaii creeper, palila, maui parrotbill, puaiohi, akepa, omao, alala, nene.
(Most of the twelve species bred at the center are small forest songbirds.)

The center is the first place in the world that has raised a wild songbird from egg to adult, reintroduced adults into the wild, and had them breed. They never capture wild birds for their purposes. They collect and hatch wild eggs from nests and artificially incubate them, hand-rear the chicks, release juveniles from the captive flock to the wild and have these birds go on to breed successfully in their native habitat or retain them in captivity for propagation. They regularly monitor and count the released and wild individuals. They locate their nests, translocate individuals if necessary, tag and fit them with radio transmitters for tracking. The project includes predator density study and control (trapping and poisoning rats)

Alala
This native hawaiian crow is one of Hawaii's most endangeredavian species.
The wild population dwindled from 11 birds (in 1992) to 2 birds by 2004!
The rest was killed by feral cats, mongooses, rats, disease, and their traditional predator, an endangered native hawk called the io. Without intervention, this species is likely to become extinct in the wild within the next 5 to 10 year.

The reproductive success of the center's alala has been disappointing: over the last year, five breeding pairs produced a total of only two chicks. Staff suspects the problem is inbreeding.

Artfully arranged plates of fruit and insects are prepared each day to meet the nutritional requirements of each bird

A baby Alala receives its first meal of bee larvae and cricket parts at the Maui Bird Conservation Center.

But it's not only the native birds who needs help. There are 282 endangered plant species in the State of Hawai`i.
Many of the endangered species have less than 10 individual plants still in the wild!
Some of them have completely disappeared from the wild and are found only in captivity such as botanical gardens. Luckily, state and federal scientists are propagating some of the rarest plants to help revegetate native ecosystems.

Biological control
Biological control is the process of introducing a pest organism to reduce the populations of an alien species.
This is important because most of the pest alien species that have been brought here came without their natural predators and parasites. Here they are able to multiply without the types of population control that they experience in the areas from which they came. Biologists go to places where the alien pest is native and find their predators and parasites, and bring them here as natural control agents.

Now there are strict regulations that include a rigorous period of testing before any new species is released. This includes testing to make sure that the control species is not bringing harmful viruses and that it is very specific to the species that it is intended to control. The testing is done on Hawaiian species on the mainland. If it is successful there, it is brought to Hawaii where the testing is repeated under quarantine conditions. The testing can take seven to eight years. Once a species has shown that it might be successful, then people have to learn to rear enough individuals to be let loose in the wild. Overall, the success rate for biological control has been about 50%. That's a very good result so Hawaii now spends about half a million dollars each year on biological control which is a good start, but not enough.

Natives Don't Stand A Fighting Chance
Both the U.S. government and the Hawaiian government have attempted to protect the endangered species and deter further damage to the island's ecosystem. The first steps to protect native Hawaiian forests were taken in 1903 when the Hawaiian Territorial Government created the State Forest Reserve system, which provides essential habitat for the survival of all the endangered forest birds.

State and Federal efforts in protecting wetlands, enforcing strict hunting laws, educating, and working with private organizations and landowners play an important role in ensuring the livelihood of the Hawaiian Moorhen and many other waterbirds. Private organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund and Ducks Unlimited have been actively supporting wetlands conservation.
The Hawaiian Stilt was once as a popular game bird, but waterbird hunting was banned in 1939. Since then, local landowners and government agencies have worked hand-in-hand to protect waterbirds and the habitat they depend on.

To help native species the law authorized the Secretaries of Interior and Commerce to acquire lands and waters for the purpose of protecting, restoring or propagating any endangered or threatened species of plants and animals. In 1986, the federal government purchased the nations' first national wildlife refuge for rain forest bird protection in the Hakalau Forest, on the Big Island.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and Haleakala National Park are doing an excellent job in trying to preserve their native species. The Nature Conservancy also has some wonderful preserves. They have acquired some of the best places in which they can save native plants. The state has a Natural Area Reserve system that is contributing to the conservation effort, along with it's state parks.

Public relations is very important
For example, the words that you use to describe the control efforts are very important. When biologists said that they had a "goat eradiction program," they were very unpopular. By changing the name to "native ecosystem restoration program" they became popular. We used to call introduced species "exotic species." This makes them sound attractive. People come to Hawaii to see "exotic" things. We now call them "alien species." That makes them sound bad. That's good; they are bad.