The San Diego Zoo has a number of conservation programs going on, this is just the one nearest and dearest to our hearts!
Here is an update from the San Diego Zoo:
Another `Alala breeding season comes around again
By Richard Switzer, Associate Director of Applied Animal Ecology, San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research.
As we approach the end of April, we can celebrate the start of the 2012 `Alala breeding season. Within the past week, the first eagerly-anticipated `Alala egg of the season has been laid at the Keauhou Bird Conservation Center (KBCC), on the Big Island of Hawai`i. In fact, we are now up to a total of six eggs laid by three females. Over at our sister facility, the Maui Bird Conservation Center (MBCC), the females are a step behind, busily nest-building.
From the point of laying, it typically takes 22 days of incubation until an `Alala chick hatches. Whenever possible, we will allow the female to incubate her own eggs for the first third of the incubation period. After that, we will pull the eggs from the nest for artificial incubation. In this way, we can control incubation parameters to maximize the chance of each egg hatching. Additionally, pulling the first clutch enables the female to subsequent lay a second clutch, which helps us to increase the flock’s potential reproductive output.
If all goes well, we hope to have the first `Alala chicks hatch sometime in the middle of May. In approximately 30% of cases, we find that the embryo requires a certain degree of assistance through the hatching process. Unfortunately, that moment of requiring assistance seems to occur with surprising frequency at 3 a.m., so many sleepless nights are spent monitoring the hatching eggs. As in previous years, the vast majority of chicks will be painstakingly hand-reared by our team of propagation staff. Crucially we hope to match, or even exceed, the wonderful breeding success we achieved during 2011. Last year we hatched 20 `Alala youngsters and successfully raised 19 of them. This marked our most successful `Alala season ever, increasing the population by 25% to our current total of 94 birds.
Notably, these 94 birds represent the entire population of `Alala. Back in 1994, the `Alala was on the brink of extinction – as few as 20 birds remained. Worse was yet to come… By 2002, the last known wild `Alala disappeared and the species was then considered extinct in the wild. Since 1993, the San Diego Zoo’s Hawai`i Endangered Bird Conservation Program has been tackling the challenge of bringing the `Alala back from the edge, through the captive breeding program at its two facilities.
But the `Alala recovery program has faced some tremendous hurdles. The shallow gene pool has proven a major hindrance in the reproductive success of the species – it should be no great surprise that a population descended from seven known founders should suffer from inbreeding depression, causing high proportions of embryo deaths and congenital abnormalities. This brings frustration and sadness. But despite these challenges, successful reproduction has prevailed and the `Alala population has steadily risen.
Of course, the future for `Alala extends beyond the captive environment and we now have realistic aspirations for restoring `Alala to the wild. However, many of the threats that were originally responsible for the extinction of the `Alala in the wild still persist – avian diseases, habitat destruction and introduced predators. Before the `Alala can be reintroduced to the wild, it is essential to overcome the threats which were responsible for their original decline. This will take time.
In meantime, we hope to continue riding the current wave of reproductive success within the `Alala captive flock. Please join us in keeping fingers crossed for another successful breeding season in 2012!
About the Hawai`i Endangered Bird Conservation Program
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| Ala Chicks begging |
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| Ala emerging |
By the early 1990s, the `Alala was acknowledged as one of the most globally threatened species and in dire need of conservation help. The early 1990s also marked the inception of the Hawai`i Endangered Bird Conservation Program (HEBCP) – originally a field project of The Peregrine Fund, which evolved in the year 2000 into a regional conservation program of the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research. The program is a 3-way partnership with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Hawai`i Division of Forestry and Wildlife, operated by the Institute for Conservation Research, with support from many other departments of the San Diego Zoo.
For the past 19 years, the `Alala has been the key focus of the HEBCP, which has nurtured the `Alala back from the precipice of extinction, through our captive breeding program at the Keauhou and Maui Bird Conservation Centers. In addition to the `Alala, the HEBCP has also focused on many other species of critically endangered native birds. Since 1993, more than 1,100 birds of 14 species have been hatched by the HEBCP. More than 780 birds have been released into protected habitat throughout the Hawaiian Islands.
In the early 1990s, the Puaiohi (a.k.a. Small Kauai Thrush) population was estimated at 200-300 birds. Thanks to the release of 222 captive-bred Puaiohi back into the Alakai Natural Area Reserve, the wild population has now more than doubled. The HEBCP has provided 442 Nene (a.k.a. Hawaiian Goose) for release, augmenting populations on Maui, the Big Island and Kauai, as well as re-establishing a new population on Moloka`i, providing major input into the restoration of the wild Nene population to more than 1,800 birds. Our work continues on collaborative species recovery programs for the Maui Parrotbill and Palila – two critically endangered species of Hawaiian Honeycreeper.
Since 2009, the HEBCP has been delighted and grateful to receive the support of the Kaytee Learning Center, which has donated (and shipped to Hawai`i!) Kaytee Exact Mynah/Toucan pellets, as a key component of the diet for the `Alala flock.
