A graduate student is collaborating with researchers to save the palila (Loxioides bailleui), a species of Hawaiian honeycreeper.
The songbirds were once found on Kauaʻi and Oʻahu, but are now confined to a small habitat on the upper slopes of Maunakea on Â鶹´«Ã½ Island, where they eat the seeds of the native m¨¡mane tree (Sophora chrysophylla). UH ±á¾±±ô´Ç¡¯²õ Alex Bischer is studying the palila, which is considered critically endangered, with fewer than 1,000 individual birds remaining in the wild.
“One of the main drivers of their drop in numbers is the loss of habitat,” says Bischer. “The palila used to be found all over the subalpine habitat wherever you could find the m¨¡mane tree, which is their main food source. The m¨¡mane has seed pods and the palila is the only animal on the island that can actually eat the seeds in the pod, so they¡¯re important for dispersing the seeds. But then sheep and other ungulates were introduced, and they eat everything they can reach, which means the trees can¡¯t regenerate. You have a bunch of older m¨¡mane forests, but as those die off, there¡¯s no regeneration, and that¡¯s been shrinking their habitat.”
In May, Bischer joined a team of researchers at Puʻu Mali for the release of six palila that were hatched and raised at the Keauhou Bird Conservation Center. r as part of the Â鶹´«Ã½ Endangered Bird Conservation Program.
About Bischer
Bischer is a student in the professional master¡¯s internship track in the . The track is designed to prepare graduates to actively contribute as scientists in environmental and conservation agencies, nonprofit organizations and other institutions.
Bischer has an internship position with the , an agency of the State of Â鶹´«Ã½ housed within the Division of Forestry and Wildlife at the Department of Land and Natural Resources. The reserve system works to preserve rare endemic plants and animals, many of which are on the edge of extinction, on 21 reserves across five islands.
—By Leah Sherwood, a graduate student in the tropical conservation biology and environmental science program at UH Hilo.