Endangered bird, rescued from certain death, takes flight

LIHU‘E — An endangered ua‘u, or Hawaiian petrel (Pterodroma sandwichensis), rescued in October has taken flight after 67 days of care.

Personnel from environmental consultancy Archipelago Research and Conservation found the ua‘u in a flooded burrow within the Hono o Na Pali Natural Area Reserve. Having determined the wet and muddy fledgling would die of hypothermia if left alone, the ARC team called in a helicopter to fly it to Save Our Shearwaters in Lihu‘e for treatment.

Experts at SOS, a native wildlife-rehabilitation facility, identified the ua‘u as MMJ122. It was underweight with a distended stomach and other potential abnormalities.

By late October, MMJ122’s fate remained uncertain, even after weeks of rehabilitation.

“The chick was in a critical condition upon intake,” SOS Program Coordinator Molly Bache said in a recent ARC press release. “However, after over two months of care, the bird was finally ready to be released. We were thrilled to see it fly strongly out to see.”

About one-third of the world’s ua‘u breed on Kaua‘i, where they face threats including powerline collisions, artificial light attraction and predation by cats, rats and pigs, according to ARC.

In October, ARC Science Director André Raine said the rescue and treatment of endangered individuals like MMJ122 is important to the species’ future.

“If you think about these birds, once they leave the island they’re going to go to sea, and a very small number of them are actually going to survive to come back to breed,” Raine said at the time. “You want to have as many birds out there as possible to ensure that some of them are going to come back, and with an endangered species, every single bird counts.”

SOS takes its birds on “field trips” when they reach a certain size and are deemed healthy. The animals stretch their wings, feel the wind and – if they choose – fly away, out over the Pacific.

MMJ122 took flight late last week.

“As we can see from this extreme example, rescued birds that are handed to SOS are given a second chance that they would not otherwise have,” ARC’s Bobby Brittingham, a member of the team that found the ua‘u, said in the ARC press release.

Ua‘u will continue to fledge on Kaua‘i over the next few weeks. Once the season is over, ARC will return to MMJ122’s burrow and make it safe for next year.