How Scientists Are Pivoting In Their Quest To Save Hawaii’s Crows…Conservationists are looking to Maui as a possible short-term solution for reestablishing alala in the wild.
When the last pair of alala vanished from the South Kona forest in 2002, scientists gave one of Hawaii’s most threatened native birds the dismal distinction of being extinct in the wild.
Then, in 2016, conservationists began gradually releasing captive-bred alala into the wild in a delicate attempt to reestablish a Hawaiian crow population outside the bounds of an aviary.
Now Hawaii’s native crow is extinct in the wild once again after a five-year effort to reintroduce the clever, black-feathered creature to its natural habitat led researchers to pull the bird back into captivity last December due to concerns over a startling number of deaths. For the first time conservationists say they are looking to release the imperiled bird on Maui, where a leading predator — another native species — does not exist.
