The San Diego Zoo and its partners have established two captive breeding facilities in Hawaii: the Maui and Keauhou Bird Conservation centers, which propagate flocks of native birds. They are then released to bolster wild populations and repopulate the species’ historic ranges. The puaiohi, or small Kauai thrush, is a success story. Biologists at the centers are now able to incubate and hatch eggs, raise young from day one (a major achievement), breed the birds reared at the center, release birds back into the wild, and see those captive-bred birds go on to breed and rear their young in the wild. So far, there have been 200 puaiohi released into their forest habitat, and measures are being taken to eliminate the factors that originally led to the birds’ decline, like disease, predation by rats and other introduced mammals, competition with other introduced species of bird, habitat degradation from feral pigs and goats, and weed invasions.
