UH Hilo Center for Maunakea Stewardship - Research Library

Hawaiian birds 1972

Author:
Berger, Andrew J.
Title:
Hawaiian birds 1972
Periodical:
Wilson Bulletin
Year:
1972
Volume:
84
Pages:
212-222
Subject:
Birds conservation Endangered species birds Mamane-naio forest Birds Mauna Kea
Summary:
More kinds of species and subspecies birds have become extinct in Hawaii than on all continents of the world combined. These endemic Hawaiian birds have become extinct since 1840, and most of them have succumbed since the 1890s. In addition, in 1972 Hawaiian birds accounted for nearly one-half of the birds in the U.S. Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife's Red Book of rare and endangered species. Sixteen of the rare and endangered Hawaiian birds were: Newell's Manx Shearwater (Puffinus puffinus newelli), Hawaiian Dark-rumped Petrel (Pterodroma phaeopygia sandwichensis), Harcourts' Storm Petrel (Oceanodroma castro cryptoleucura), Nene or Hawaiian Goose (Branta sandvicensis), Koloa or Hawaiian Duck (Anas wyvillliana), Laysan Duck (Anas laysanensis), Hawaiian Hawk (Buteo solitarius), Hawaiian Gallinule (Gallinula chloropus sandvicensis), Hawaiian Coot (Fulica americana alai), Hawaiian Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus himantopus knudseni), Hawaiian Crow (Corvus tropicus), Large Kauai Thrush (Phaeornis obscurus myadestina), Molokai Thrush (Phaeornis o. rutha), Small Kauai Thrush (Phaeornis palmeri), Nihoa Millerbird (Acrocephalus familiaris kingi), and the Kauai Oo (Moho braccatus). The non-migratory Hawaiian population of the Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax n. hoactli) was also be added to this list. Unfortunately, there were even more endangered Hawaiian birds at that time! Table 1, that is included in this document, lists the endemic Hawaiian birds that were presumed to be extinct. Because of their special interest to ornithologists, Table 2 was included to cover Hawaii's only endemic bird family, the Hawaiian honeycreepers or Drepanididae. In terms of the 22 species and 24 subspecies of honeycreepers that were delineated by Amadon (1950), this table indicates that there was not a single species, whose range once included more than one of the main islands, that did not have populations that either were already extinct or had endangered populations on one or more islands! The honeycreepers that were considered non-endangered at the time were found primarily on the islands of Kauai, Maui, or Hawaii, although the Amakihi and Apapane on Oahu were not classified as endangered. The Anianiau (Loxops parva) was endemic to Kauai only. Only the Kauai race of the Akepa (Loxops coccinea caeruleirostris), and only the Kauai (Loxops maculata bairdi) and Maui (L. m. newtoni) races of the Creeper were thought not be endangered. The Apapane, Amakihi, the Iiwi were still common in suitable habitat on Kauai, Maui, and Hawaii. This was a disappointing remnant of a family of birds that demonstrated the results of adaptive radiation to a far more striking degree than even the Galapagos Finches. As a result, it seemed that the prospects for preserving the dwindling populations that existed back in 1972 were poor due to the lack of measures that were taken at the time in an effort to control the populations of grazing and rooting animals. These animals, such as the feral sheep and pigs that lived in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and the Haleakala National Park, devastated the vegetation on which the Hawaiian endemic birds fed. The author goes on to describe other reasons why conservationists had a difficult time in their effort to preserve what little remained of the endemic Hawaiian ecosystems.
Label:
Birds - General
URL:
https://sora.unm.edu/node/128868
Date:
1972
Collection:
Periodicals