 | | | | | | | | | | |  |  | | | | Science: Effort to save world's rarest bird">Archive of stories pre April 2007 | | | | | | | 
Archive of stories pre April 2007 | News submitted by: MIB
HONOLULU, Hawaii (AP) -- The last three po`ouli birds known to exist will be taken into captivity in a last-ditch effort to save the species from extinction.
"If we do not bring them in now, they may never be seen again," said Michael Buck, administrator of the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife.
The po`ouli, or Hawaiian honeycreeper, may be the rarest bird on Earth. The last known breeding occurred about five years ago.
Rare meeting
The small, stocky brown bird looks as if it is wearing a bandit's black mask. Its Hawaiian name means "black-faced." It was first identified in 1973 by students on a University of Hawaii expedition. Its population then was estimated at 200.
The last three birds live within 1 and 1/2 miles of each other in the dense rainforest of Maui, and scientists believe they have never met.
The state, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the San Diego Zoo are working together to try to save the po`ouli.
"We decided that if we didn't intervene, these birds might never find each other and the species would go extinct," said Paul Henson of the Fish and Wildlife Service.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/11/26/hawaiian.bird.ap/index.html
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