Spring Cleaning in Hawaii
Posted at 5:03 pm March 17, 2006 by Jeremy Hodges
Many people equate this time of the year with " spring cleaning." It's the time to sweep the cobwebs out of the corners, open windows to air out rooms, and dust all of those hard-to-reach areas. For the biologists of the Hawaii Endangered Bird Conservation Program, spring cleaning is when we prepare for the season's eggs and chicks, and it involves a lot more then dusting for cobwebs!
When working with some of the most endangered species of birds on the planet, it is impossible to be too clean. Incubation and chick feeding areas must be as sterile as a hospital operating room. The shell of an egg does not always protect the growing embryo from all forms of bacterial or fungal infection, so we take great precautions to make sure that incubators are completely antiseptic. Our wooden incubators are first cleaned with an antifungal fumigating chemical, then wiped down with an antibacterial cleaning agent, and finally sterilized with UV radiation to ensure that there are no harmful pathogens to infect the delicate embryos. Similar steps are taken with the hatchers and brooders that maintain the chicks for the first few weeks of life.
We also check and double check the heating elements and settings of our incubators, making sure that the temperature is exact for ideal embryo development. All of our incubators have emergency back-ups to the heating elements that will shut down the heat if the temperature rises even half of a degree. These systems are tested and re-tested before the eggs are placed in incubators.
This extensive cleaning process is well worth the effort when our first chicks of the year hatch. With the rarity of many of the birds in our care, each chick is a tangible reminder that we are making a difference and are one step closer to saving a species that was here long before the human inhabitants arrived on the Hawaiian islands.
Jeremy Hodges is a Research Fellow with the Hawaii Endangered Bird Conservation Program.
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March 18th, 2006 at 6:38 pm
Jeremy, thank you so much for sharing with us some of the complexity of the work you do in preparing for the eggs of your critically endangered birds. You must feel a thrill of pride and satisfaction as each chick hatches. Please let us know how this spring's broods do.
March 20th, 2006 at 7:24 pm
Jeremy! It was so neat to read your article and see your picture. I'm so proud of you and your pursuit and love of science. Thanks for representing NNU so far away! Keep up the good work and saving the beloved species God created.
March 22nd, 2006 at 9:20 am
Jeremy, great to read about you. We are proud of you! Hope all is going well.
Dr. K
June 9th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Yeah Keep up the good work.
Lucy xx