The Race to Save the World's Rarest Bird: The Discovery and Death of the Po'ouli

[depakid]

For scientists, naturalists and birders, islands are the most amazing places on earth because their evolutionary legacy has provided them with their own fascinating flora and fauna that are found nowhere else in the world. But because humans also like to live on islands, along with their pets and crop plants, islands are a conservation nightmare, and certainly, the Hawai'ian islands are no exception.

In Alvin Powell's book, The Race to Save the World's Rarest Bird: The Discovery and Death of the Po'ouli (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books; 2008), we learn about one endangered Hawai'ian bird, the mysterious Po'ouli , Melamprosops phaeosoma, and the true story of why this enigmatic little bird disappeared forever.

The book starts late in the afternoon of 26 July 1973, when botanist Betsy Harrison was climbing a steep trail at sixty-four hundered feet above sea level. She was alone. Suddenly, the dense forest came alive with the short chik calls and flitting movements of small group of Hawai'ian Honeycreepers.

Accompanying the lively and vocal honeycreepers were three small, brownish birds with black masks, all of which were nearly completely silent. Silence is quite odd for the birds of the dense forests, since they must rely their voices instead of their vision to maintain contact with each other. Suddenly, Harrison realized she was seeing something very unusual, possibly something new.

And thus begins the poignant tale of the enigmatic po'ouli, Melamprosops phaeosoma, a peculiar little snail-eating bird whose population was being savaged by a suite of invasive and deadly enemies that humans introduced onto the islands: domestic pigs and housecats, tree-climbing rats and mongooses, predatory snails competing for its food, malaria and of course, humans themselves. The tragic story of the Po'ouli exemplifies the multitudes of challenges associated with protecting and preserving endangered species in America.

More: http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2008/10/the_race_to_save_the_worlds_ra.php