In Hawaiian tradition, the souls of the dead travel to the afterlife by jumping from clifftops called “jumping places.” Po, the round sea of time where gods and ancestors live. But without the guidance of onethe lead—an ancestral spirit that can take the shape of an animal—the dead cannot jump. Without them parents, these lost souls are doomed to an eternity of wandering and hunger, chasing moths and crickets for eternal sustenance.
For decades, an important soul guide has been absent from the Hawaiian skies: The ‘alalā, The crow species, which is only native to the islands, has been extinct in the wild since 2002. Multiple attempts to reintroduce captive borns. ‘alalā They have not been successful on the Big Island of Hawaii, in large part because oh or Hawaiian falcon, the ‘alalāthe last surviving natural predator.
But now a new hope is taking wing: a new class of five young men ‘alalā has been released into the wild on the slopes of Haleakalā The volcano on the island of Maui, where ‘io they are not
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“Conservation doesn’t happen overnight,” says Hannah Bailey, conservation program manager for the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s Hawaiian Endangered Bird Program. “We are still learning, and so are the birds.”
The ‘alalā it is the most threatened corvid in the world and one of only two species of corvid known for widespread tool use.
San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
The ‘alalā, Looking more like a crow than a crow, it is the world’s most threatened corvid and one of only two species of corvid known for widespread tool use. It is among the most chatty corvids, with over 50 calls documented, and is referred to as the “bird with a loud voice” in Hawaiian mythology. The ‘alalā it is omnivorous, and its diet consists mostly of fruits and insects found in the forest jungle, but it also eats flower petals, nectar, mice and the nests of smaller birds.
to the Hawaiians, ‘alalā is one the lead “functioning as a guardian, guide and protector,” says kuʻualoha hoʻomanawanui, a professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and an expert. the storyor traditional knowledge that includes folklore and mythology. “`Aumās they often appear in dreams (or) visions or call upon the people they were protecting to warn of danger or sometimes to reprimand them.
“Because there is a familial and symbiotic relationship, people did not harm or eat ‘aumās but they fed and helped them when they needed it,” he added.
It became clear ‘alalā When the population declined in the 1970s and 1980s, they were “in need”. Avian malaria, invasive predators such as feral cats, and habitat loss from ranching expansion reduced the population to a few dozen. Scientists in the state of Hawaii began hatching eggs in captivity in the mid-1970s to create a genetic ark.
Today, the San Diego Zoo is home to more than 100 captive breeding centers managed by the Wildlife Alliance. ‘alalā—but a stable population in captivity is a world away from the wild, Bailey explains. Reintroduction is a messy process when animals are generations away from living in the wild. This is especially true when the threats that brought the population to its knees are still present.
five ‘alalā They were released on Maui, where it is a natural predator ‘yo or Hawaiian falcon, is not present.
San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
Reintroduction attempts in the 1990s and late 2010s had high mortality rates. Some birds appeared to die of malnutrition, while others contracted toxoplasmosis, or fowl pox. Over the years, ‘io at least 16 fired have been removed ‘alalā and conservationists aborted re-entries. While those losses were “heartbreaking,” Bailey says, “I caution people against saying they were failures. The amount of information we’ve learned—about behavior, intergroup connections, even food and resource use—is invaluable to our future planning.” “.
The five birds released on Maui range in age from a year to a year and a half—a window where the birds are “at a particularly good age to learn to navigate new things,” Bailey says. “You can think of them as an awesome group of teenagers right now.”
Bailey and his team deliberately group hatchlings to create a nest class of a similar age, “because we want to create social relationships,” he says. Scientists don’t know for sure ‘alalā they form large social groups or prefer to keep to themselves outside of mating season, but Bailey says he expects to band together to ward off predators by “mobbing” like their other corvid cousins do.
There is a clear power dynamic in the cohort of two females and three males. “Females are a little picky,” says Bailey. “Even if they’re younger, they’re like, ‘No, we’ve got this.’ That’s how you do things.'” And they’re almost always right, he says.
From a young age, the birds were introduced to native Hawaiian food sources, including insect species and fruits. A new addition to the courses is anti-predator training: the young crows were taught to recognize them oh owls and domestic cats and associating with adult alarm calls ‘alalā. “If they didn’t respond properly, that reduced their chances of being on the release team,” says Bailey.
Before being helicoptered to the Maui release site, the graduating birds received a traditional blessing from hula master Kapono’ai Molitau, who spoke. ‘alalā like “hulu kūpuna,” or honored seniors. The class of crows spent several weeks acclimatizing in outdoor aviaries on the slopes of Maui before being released into a remote forest preserve.
Initially, the birds will be deprived of food to facilitate the transition to self-sufficiency. This new class will also be equipped with tracking harnesses that will allow researchers to track their movements or discover their fate.
What does success look like for this cohort? Bailey says it doesn’t mean immediately establishing a wild breeding population. “We want to see them put the landscape to good use,” he says. “We want to see survival.”
