<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/04/extinction-obituary-hawaiian-poouli-bird-aoe>
"The last po’ouli died in an unusual nest. Too weak to perch, the
brownish-greyish songbird rested in a small towel twisted into a ring. He was
the last of his species, the last in fact of an entire group of finches, and
occurred nowhere on Earth outside his native Hawaii. For weeks, as scientists
tried to find him a mate, he had been getting sicker. The only remaining
po’ouli had just one eye. Alone in the towel, alone in all the world, he closed
it.
He was born, like all po’ouli (pronounced po-oh-oo-lee), in Maui’s Hana
rainforest, on the slopes of Mount Haleakalā – “house of the sun” – where it
rains all the time. Also known as the blackfaced honeycreeper, his species was
discovered in 1973. Then, researchers estimated the total population at 200
birds.
Scholar Mary Kawena Pukui gave the bird its name, meaning “black head”. Her
book of Hawaiian proverbs includes this one:
Hāhai nō ka ua i ka ululāʻau,
“the rain follows the forest”. The phrase has a double meaning: it is a hint
and warning. To find water, look for forests. But also: should one element of
an ecosystem be destroyed, others will surely follow."
Via David Dewain and Christoph S.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
