Rimatara lorikeets were once found throughout many of the islands of French Polynesia and the Cook Islands, but over time their range has become limited to the tiny, far-flung island of Rimatara in French Polynesia. A team from the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research™ joined the Rimatara Lorikeet Translocation Team, an international, collaborative effort led by the Cook Islands Natural Heritage Trust, to establish a second population on a predator-free island with suitable lorikeet habitat. The nearest island meeting these criteria was Atiu in the Cook Islands—more than a thousand miles away, in a different island chain and a different country. The team successfully caught and transported a group of lorikeets from Rimatara to Atiu, uniting two distant island communities to work together on behalf of the lorikeet. Since their introduction, the second population of lorikeets has become firmly established on Atiu, with a small group of adventurous birds finding their way to a nearby island. The lorikeet population on Atiu has steadily risen from the original translocated flock of 27 to an estimated 100 birds!
