COURTESY DOMINIC CARDEA /
HALEAKALA NATIONAL PARK
An effort of the Adopt-a-Nene program and Haleakala National Park is bringing 17 nene to be released in the Paliku area tomorrow.
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Back to Nature
Young Hawaiian geese are heading to Haleakala Park
Seventeen nene raised in captivity will be flown by helicopter to a remote part of Haleakala National Park this week, as part of ongoing efforts to increase numbers of Hawaii's state bird in the wild.
The Hawaiian geese are 12 weeks old, which makes them "teenagers," said Cathleen Bailey, a park wildlife biologist.
"I'm very excited," said Bailey, who will be among the scientists taking the endangered birds to their new home in the Paliku area of the park tomorrow. "This is the first time in many years that this many nene will be released into the park at once. Hopefully, these birds will add to our population."
They will join about 120 nene in the Paliku area and a total of 250 nene in the park.
Placing the birds there as they are fledging into their first flying feathers should make them less vulnerable to predators than young birds that are hatched in the wild, Bailey said.
The nene will be trucked from the Maui Bird Conservation Center in Olinda, where they were hatched and raised, to Hosmer Grove in Haleakala National Park, Bailey said.
COURTESY DOMINIC CARDEA /
HALEAKALA NATIONAL PARK
The nene, like this baby gosling, will join about 120 nene in the Paliku area.
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A five-minute helicopter ride will get them to Paliku, a remote area that normally is accessed by hiking 12 miles.
Wildlife biologists will make regular visits to control predators that might attack the nene, but the birds will have to find their own food and water, Bailey said.
The helicopter is being paid for by the Friends of Haleakala National Park Inc.'s Adopt-a-Nene program, according to a release from the park.
"This is what the Adopt-a-Nene program is for, to help support the wildlife management program in the park," Mary Evanson, vice president of the Friends, said in the release. "We are very pleased."
Nene were once locally extinct on the island of Maui, according to the Park Service. The state began recovery efforts in 1962, when 35 birds were carried by hiking Boy Scouts to the Paliku area.
From 1962 to 1977, about 500 birds were released into Haleakala Crater. Then biologists slowed introductions of birds, to see if the nene could maintain a population on their own.
Be aware of nene population in Haleakala
Please do not feed the nene. The birds become vulnerable to getting hit by cars if they become accustomed to being fed by humans, said Haleakala National Park wildlife biologist Cathleen Bailey. Letting the wild birds eat wild food will help them live, she said.
Visitors to Haleakala also should drive slowly and stay on trails when hiking, to avoid separating a nene from its young.