| Melamprosops phaeosoma
|
HOME |
| |
| Kingdom |
Animalia |
A
Po'o-uli photographed by Paul E. Baker. This image is the work of an U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service employee, taken during the course of an
employee's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the
image is in the
public domain.
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| Phylum |
Chordata |
| Class |
Aves
(birds) |
| Order |
Passeriformes
|
| Family |
Fringillidae
|
| Subfamily |
Drepanidinae |
| Authority |
Casey & Jacobi, 1974 |
| |
| English
Name |
Po'o-uli,
Po'ouli, Black-faced Honeycreeper |
| Dutch
Name |
Po'o-uli,
Poo-uli |
| French
Name |
Po'o-uli,
Po-o-uli Masqué |
| German
Name |
Po'o-uli,
Mauigimpel |
| Spanish Name |
Po'o-uli,
Poo-uli |
| |
| Taxonomy |
Some
authorities categorize this group as the family Drepanididae. |
| |
| Characteristics |
The
Po'o-uli is a chunky, 14 cm long, short-tailed passerine with a heavy
somewhat finch-like bill. Adult Po'o-uli are brown above and greyish-white
below, with a broad black mask extending behind the eye. They are grey
above their mask, shading into a brown crown. A bold, pale patch can be
found just behind their mask. Juvenile birds are similar in colouring, but
buffier below with a smaller mask without grey above. The Po'o-uli's song
is a quiet jumble of chittering notes, while their call is a loud chirk,
often in short series. (BirdLife International 2006) |
| |
| Range
& Habitat |
 The
Po'o-uli is endemic to Maui in the Hawaiian Islands (U.S.A.), where it is
found in remote `ohi`a forest at 1,400-2,100 m, but this may be suboptimal habitat as
subfossil evidence indicates that it occurred in much drier habitat at
300-1,500 m (Mountainspring et al. 1990; Reilly 1998). (BirdLife
International 2004b; BirdLife International 2006)
Image: range map that shows the
previous distribution of the Po'o-uli (red dot) on the Hawaiian island of
Maui. This
image is in the public domain
because came from the site http://www.demis.nl/home/pages/Gallery/examples.htm
and was released by the copyright holder. Permission is granted to copy,
distribute and/or modify this map since it is based on free of copyright
images from: www.demis.nl.
See also approval
email on the German Wikipedia.
|
| |
| Food |
This
bird fed primarily on snails, insects, and spiders, and occasionally fruit
(Pratt et al. 1997;
BirdLife International 2006). |
| |
| Reproduction |
The
only two known nests of this species were found in `ohi`a trees (Pratt
et al. 1997; BirdLife International 2006). |
| |
| History
& Population |
The
Po'o-uli was discovered in
1973, in the Ko`olau Forest Reserve on the north-eastern flanks of
Haleakala (Pratt et al. 1997; Rosa et al.
1998) and estimated to number fewer than 200 birds. During 1975-1985, there was a 90%
decline in the po'o-uli's population density in the upper Hanawi watershed (Mountainspring et al. 1990). In 1995, only five to seven birds
were known but, by mid-1997, only three individuals could be found (two
males and one possibly female). Each of these three found birds had distinct home ranges in Hanawi
Natural Area Reserve (NAR) and the immediately adjacent Haleakala National
Park (Baker 2001; BirdLife
International 2004a). A few unlocated individuals may have existed in the wild, but the
wild population was functionally zero
since the three known birds occurred in separate, non-overlapping home ranges
and no breeding was probable without intervention. (BirdLife
International 2006)
In 2002, one of the remaining
individuals, the lone female, was caught and released within the territory
of one of the males, in an attempt to get the two to breed. However, the
translocated bird did not remain in the area. In 2003, captive breeding
efforts began when members of the Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project
attempted to locate and trap all remaining birds. Only one bird, a male,
was finally captured on 9 September 2004 and brought to
the Maui Bird Conservation Center in Olinda, in an attempt to captively
breed the bird. However, biologists could not find a mate for the male
before it died of avian malaria on 28 November 2004. Biologists are now
searching for the two possible remaining birds, which have not been seen
for over a year and are probably dead too. The captive male bird was most
likely the very last of his kind. (BirdLife
International 2004a; Wikipedia
contributors 2007)
|
| |
| Extinction
Causes |
The
po'o-uli declined and became eventually extinct due to habitat destruction
and modification, the rapid spread of disease-carrying mosquitoes in the
lowlands (Mountainspring et al. 1990), predation by introduced
rats, cats and small Indian mongoose Herpestes auropunctatus.
Another factor is competition for food with introduced rats and garlic
snails Oxychilus alliarius, which caused the decline of the native
land snails, an important food source for this bird. Disturbance by
helicopters, especially during the nesting season, may have contributed as
well (Pratt et al. 1997). (BirdLife
International 2006)
|
| |
| Conservation
Attempts |
The
30 km2 Hanawi NAR was created for the protection of this species in
1986. In order to prevent the spread of mosquitoes into upper elevation
forests and the restoration of more lower elevation habitat, all pigs were
eradicated from three fences areas. (Pratt et al. 1997; Reily
1998; Rosa et al.
1998; BirdLife
International 2006) Bringing isolated birds together in the wild as well
as captive breeding efforts failed (BirdLife
International 2004a). |
| |
| Cloning |
Tissue
samples have been taken from the captive male for possible future cloning,
but as neither birds of the opposite sex are now available (Wikipedia
contributors 2007). |
| |
| Museum
Specimens |
Do
you know any museum specimens? Please contact
this website. |
| |
| Relatives |
The Po'o-uli
belongs to one of the world's most threatened bird families, the Hawaiian
honeycreepers (Drepanididae).
|
| |
| Links |
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: Melamprosops phaeosoma
Po'o-uli - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
| |
| References |
Baker,
P. E. (2001) Status and distribution of the Po'ouli (Melamprosops
phaeosoma) in the Hanawi natural area reserve between December 1995
and June 1997. Pp. 144-150 in J. M. Scott, S. Conant and C. van Riper,
eds. Ecology, conservation and management of endemic Hawaiian birds: a
vanishing avifauna. : Cooper Ornithological Society (Studies in Avian
Biology 22).
BirdLife
International 2004a. Dark
day for poor Po'o-uli. News Release (03-12-2004). Downloaded on 22
January 2007.
BirdLife
International 2004b. Melamprosops phaeosoma. In: IUCN 2006. 2006
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>.
Downloaded on 22 January 2007.
BirdLife International (2006)
Species factsheet: Melamprosops phaeosoma. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org
on 15/4/2007
Mountainspring, S., Casey, T. L.
C., Kepler, C. B. and Scott, J. M. (1990) Ecology, behavior, and
conservation of the Po'o-uli (Melamprosops phaeosoma). Wilson
Bull. 102: 109-122.
Pratt, T. K., Kepler, C. B. and
Casey, T. L. C. (1997) Po'ouli (Melanprosops phaeosoma). Pp. 1-16
in A. Poole and F. Gill, eds. The birds of North America, No.
272. Philadelphia, and Washington, DC: The Academy of Natural Sciences,
and The American Ornithologists' Union.
Reilly, S. E. (1998) Saving the
Po`o-uli Melamprosops phaeosoma, the world's rarest bird. 'Elepaio
58: 17-18.
Rosa, K., Hopper, D. and Reilly, S.
(1998) Draft environment assessment for possible management actions to
save the Po'ouli. Honolulu: US Fish and Wildlife Service, Hawaii
Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Forestry and
Wildlife.
Wikipedia contributors (2007),
"Poʻo-uli," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Po%CA%BBo-uli&oldid=124921860
(accessed May 5, 2007).
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Last
updated: 5th May 2007.
This
page is a part of The
Extinction Website.
© 2000-2009. |