The Hawai‘i Wildlife Center Archived News
Duck habitat
Refuge for Hawaiian duck in Kohala mountains
by Mitchell Byars
West Hawaii Today
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
The mountains would seem like an odd place
to go looking for ducks, but that's just where local biologists hope
to soon find flocks of them. The New Moon Foundation, along with
the Hawaii Wildlife Center, gave two tours on Saturday of a new 17-acre
habitat in the North Kohala mountains designed for the Hawaiian duck,
also known by its Hawaiian name koloa maoli. The Hawaiian duck is
endemic to Hawaii and is the only duck native to the main islands.
There are only around 2,000 statewide, and most of the wild ducks
are on the islands of Kauai and Niihau.
In hopes of trying to restore the koloa to the Big Island, the New Moon Foundation -- which owns approximately 2,000 acres in Kohala - enrolled in the Wetlands Reserve Program, part of the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Under the program, landowners can apply for funds to help convert some of their land into habitat for native wildlife; New Moon had 75 percent of the costs covered by the program. "The more wetlands on the mountain, the better," said Bennett Dorrance, co-executive director of New Moon Foundation, an organization inspired by Buddhist teachings that tries to maintain a "right relationship," with the land. "The plan is for the other landholders to open their land to this." Those who took the tour were driven up into the mountains, where the fenced-in habitat sits nestled between cattle ranch lands. Once there, they were given a presentation on the habitat and shown the three pond areas for the ducks.
The habitat currently has three pond areas, though the lack of rain in the area has made finding water to fill the ponds difficult. One thing those on the tour did not see were the secretive ducks, though some have been spotted in the area.
The most pressing threat to the koloa today is cross-breeding
with the more common and aggressive feral mallards, creating hybrids and
threatening to breed out the species. In addition, many introduced
animals, such as mongoose, dogs, cats and even bullfrogs, prey on
the eggs and ducklings. Hunting was also a problem until the duck
became a protected species as a member of the endangered species
list in 1967.
"In the sixties, the koloa numbers were way down," said Linda
Elliot, the president and director of the Hawaii Wildlife Center,
which will be breaking ground on a new facility on June 27. "Habitat
loss, predators and hunting caused their numbers to drop dramatically."
Today, pure Hawaiian ducks, which used to be found on every island but Lanai, have only been confirmed in the wild on Kauai and Niihau. Biologists believe the Big Island may have some as well, and workers recently took blood tests of some ducks in Waimea and are waiting on the results to confirm or dispel their suspicions. To avoid any problems in the habitat with hybridization, the Hawaii Wildlife Center is trying to keep mallards away from the sanctuary. "We don't have any mallards that we know of," Elliot said. "There's a real good opportunity to keep the population here from becoming cross-bred."
The Hawaii Wildlife Center also hopes the habitat, which should be fully operational in about a year, will be a great opportunity to study the koloa. Planners are hoping to create a trail and a blind near the three ponds in order to observe the koloa, which is one of the least seen and studied of Hawaii's native birds because of their shy nature.
"They like privacy, not a lot of commotion," Elliot said.
Even
if that meant the tour groups did not see any ducks, those who went
said they had a fun time and learned more about the plight of the
koloa and the efforts being made to save them. "It was wonderful," said
Dixie Adams, of Kohala, who took the tour with her 9-year-old granddaughter,
Zoe Rudd. "I love being out in the Kohala woods. It was a fun experience.
"The whole town is supporting Linda and the wildlife. It's going to be a wonderful thing for Kohala and the whole state."
Kohala has a long tradition of helping these native birds. Kohala resident Ah Fat Lee, now 90, raised and bred native birds, including the koloa, when he did conservation work from the 1950s until his retirement in the 1980s. Elliot says that the koloa that currently live in the Kohala mountains are most likely the descendants of the 350 ducks released by Lee. Elliot said that they hope to continue to help the koloa in the same town in which Lee reintroduced them to the Big Island. "We get to tie the past to the present here in Kohala."
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Duck habitat - Refuge for Hawaiian duck in Kohala mountains
West Hawaii Today, June 11, 2008
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