The Very Last One
Posted at 1:13 pm September 30, 2005 by Cindy Spiva-Evans
On November 26, 2004, a little brown bird with a little black mask quietly died. About the size of a sparrow, he was very likely the very last of his kind. Carefully packed in “blue ice,” he was shipped from Maui to the Pathology Division of CRES at the San Diego Zoo. Dr. Bruce Rideout came in to work on a quiet, dry Sunday to do a necropsy—a postmortem exam similar to an autopsy. His goal? To try to find out why exactly the bird had died.
The little bird—a forest dweller the Hawaiian people call “po’ouli”—was treated delicately and with respect. Dr. Rideout carefully saved the little body so it could be shipped back to its home in Hawaii, to be preserved as a museum specimen. It was sitting in the Pathology Division’s walk-in refrigerator, in a small plastic bag, waiting, when I arrived at work the following morning.
I reached over and picked up that little bird, in its little bag, and thought to myself, “My word. This is it. The Very Last One.” I held that small bird in my hands for several minutes and wept for the loss, not only of the one small bird, but for an entire species, which will never again grace the Earth with its presence.
As you will know from reading other postings to this Hawaii Bird Project site (see “The Essence of a Species”), the San Diego Zoo is actively involved in trying to help preserve endangered species from all over the world. We are privileged that, even in death, we can learn from the animals with whom we share our planet.
I must offer, too, that the Zoo has provided me with perhaps one of the most powerful and moving experiences of my life—the experience of seeing, and holding, The Very Last One of something. I hope it is an experience I will never have to repeat.
Cindy Spiva-Evans, an educator at the San Diego Zoo, worked on loan as a pathology technician.
Here’s more information about the po’ouli.
Here’s more information about the Hawaii Endangered Bird Conservation Program.
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October 3rd, 2005 at 9:43 am
Your beautifully written and heartfelt tribute to this little bird and, by extension, all living things brought tears to my eyes, too. Thank you.
October 3rd, 2005 at 11:19 am
Thank you for your words, and for your tears. The loss of any species is a tragedy for our world. We can only hope that mankind will someday fully understand the balance and interconnectedness of all creatures on this planet, and how precious each one is. We should all be crying.