03-08-2007, 08:55 AM
quote:
I had no idea that nene were on the menu at Volcano house. For the most part, I believe the mongoose ultimately brought down the population though. It is currently keeping the numbers down now. I wonder how long it took volcano house to figure out it was endangered. Interesting trivia.
Mongoose predation did play a role in the Nene's demise but that's not the whole story. As in the quote I posted, Nene used to range across the Hawaiian islands. They were extinct on Kaui by the time of contact. Kaui never had any mongooses. Today the Nene has been accidently reintroduced to the wild on Kaui and they are flourishing because of the lack of mongooses. Why did they go extinct on Kauai if there were no mongooses and why are they doing so well there today?
quote:
Nene became wild on Kaua'i in 1982 after Hurricane Iwa destroyed the cages of captive nene on the southeast side of the island. These birds rapidly adapted to the mongoose-free, lowland, grassy habitat. Because these birds were so successful, State biologists recently have introduced Nene on the north and northwest coasts of Kaua'i.