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RussianKipuka 21: A New Home for Our Creeper and ‘Akepa
Posted at 12:09 pm October 5, 2007 by Alan Lieberman
The only thing more satisfying and exciting than hatching and rearing some of the most endangered species in the world is sending them off into native forests to be part of a restored Hawaiian ecosystem. As part of the recovery efforts to restore the biodiversity of Kipuka 21, the Hawaii Endangered Bird Conservation Program is in a two-month process, methodically releasing the Hawaii creeper (juvenile pictured above) and ‘akepa (female pictured below) back into a native ecosystem.
A kipuka is an isolated, remnant forest created by topographic “bumps” around which lava has flowed, creating a green island in a sea of sterile lava. This is a wonderful opportunity to “seed” endangered birds into a fairly pristine native habitat. From August into October, biologists for the program have been acclimating, releasing, and supporting a total of 6 creepers and 12 ‘akepa. The ‘akepa are released in family groups. (Read a blog about ‘akepa, A Small but Mighty ‘Akepa.)
Because we only have one release/acclimation aviary, the process of reintroduction is slow, but we want to be sure we are releasing birds that are independent and fully capable of making the transition from captivity to the wild. After all, some of these birds hatched in managed care are more than 9 years old and have never seen a wild ohia tree before!
So far, all is going very well, and more than half of the released birds are seen on a daily basis. We’ll keep you posted on the progress of the release. More to come!
Listen to the ‘akepa
Listen to the Hawaii creeper
Alan Lieberman is a conservation program manager at CRES.
Listen to an iZoofari Chat with Alan about the releases.
Read blogs from staff involved in the Hawaii Endangered Bird Conservation Program.
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October 5th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Alan, thanks for the update and the exciting news! It is wonderful to hear of successful stories of releasing captive raised creatures into their wild ancestral homeland. The pristine environment sounds ideal for such activities. I was on Hawaii in 1988 between major lava eruptions and flows down the mountainside. The year after we were there even the visitors center was “swallowed up” by lava. It is an incredible biodiverse environment, and the lava creates a very rich environment for plants and animals to come up in following years. These birds are very blessed to have such naturally created pristine environments in which to start their wild lives.
If some of the birds are 9 years when released, how long does that species of bird normally live?
October 5th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Hello Margaret… always a pleasure to know you’re looking in. Thanks for being such a loyal follower of the Hawaii blogs. It seems that the Hawaiian forest birds, in general, live a bit longer than their mainland counterparts. There are only a few examples of birds that I’m aware of that have been banded at a known time and location and then recaptured at a later time that were remarkable. I know of three examples. One was a common amakihi that was banded as an adult and then recaptured 13 years later. Another was a palila that was recaptured 18 years after being banded (it was building a nest!), and the third was a po’ouli that was banded as an adult and captured 9 years later. Captive birds under ideal conditions might be expected to live longer. Several of these ‘akepa and creepers in the release cohorts are 8 and 9 years old. For very small songbirds, that would be very old if they were mainland species, but it now seems that perhaps that’s not so very old for a Hawaiian bird. I might add, the breeding adult ‘akepa that are the parents of the two chicks hatched this year (2007) are adults that came into the program as wild eggs and were hatched and reared in 1999, making them 8 years old and breeding like youngsters. It is very interesting the things we are discovering all the time about these wonderful species. Thanks again for your readership.
October 6th, 2007 at 8:11 am
Congratulations on the success of your on-going reintroduction program. I am formerly from Hawaii and old enough to have seen the land taken from the animals and plants and given over to houses and shopping centers.
I am grateful that CRES is working hard to save our birds and returning them to the wild. How liberating to be
a bird and sit in a ohia tree and be able to fly around without a net to stop my flight. For the first time. At
nine years old!
Wonderful, wonderful. Thank you very much.
October 6th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Yes….isn’t it amazing to think that all of these released birds have been in captivity their entire lives, from the egg onward, and they just knew how to “act” in the wild….amazing! This is what we call “hard-wired”or Instinctive behavior. Not all bird species are as pre-programmed, but fortunately for us (and them) the creeper and akepa just know how to act like creeper and akepa. Let’s hope they show similar natural behavior when it comes time to breed.
Thanks for looking in.
December 10th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
As a volunteer helping to prepare Kipuka 21’s trails with Na Ala Hele, a subset of the Div. of Forestry and Wildlife, I was rewarded with an invitation to the initial release of Hawai’i Creepers in Sept. It was truly a golden moment to see captive raised and bred Hawaiian forest birds released into their native habitat! Within moments, the creepers were foraging for food on their own, extracting larvae from ‘ohia branches instead of using the provided food. Talk about hardwired behavior! I’ve heard from the biologists who have been monitoring these birds that they have already seen an unbanded (meaning wild) creeper and ‘Akepa in association with the released birds. Mind you, this kipuka, although very nice habitat and full of other native bird life, is not known to have lots of either species. So, perhaps the released birds may “encourage” wild birds to visit, and perhaps, stay in this forest oasis in the midst of the old lava flows.