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The major decline of ‘Alala
population began in the 1900’s and like with many native Hawaiian
birds, such as the Koa Finch and Kona Grosbeak, dealing with the loss
of land to agriculture, forestry, and the introduction of exotic
predators and exotic disease proved to be too great of a
challenge(USFWS 2009). -
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Surveys of native birds conducted in the first
half of the 20th century led to the listing of the ‘Alala under the
state’s protected birds list in 1931 (Sakai et al. 1986). -
However
this did not have any significant impact on the declining population
so the ‘Alala became one of the first species listed under the
Endangered Species Protection Act (now the ESA) passed in 1967 (USFWS
2009). -
Due to the dwindling population
of the bird in the wild the team captured and rehabilitated all
injured and sick individuals starting in 1975. -
The
road to recovery has been long and began in 1982 when the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service published a recovery act specific to the ‘Alala.
In addition to this USFWS commissioned a review of the ‘Alalas
status and designated an official recovery team to undertake the
work. -
By 1993 a small cohort
of 27 individuals had accumulated through captive breeding and the
recovery team attempted the first re-introduction. -
The
re-introduction effort was a partial success but the majority of birds did not survive and remaining few had to be re-caputured to prevent complete extinction. -
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Since then the recovery team has
been focused on attaining a larger cohort size and a suitable habitat
for a second attempt. Over the period of 15 years the reproductive success of the captive population has improved and there are currently 95 birds in captivity. The recovery team will most likely attempt another reintrodcution event within the next few years.
