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For the second time in three months, officials at the Waihee Refuge have found wedge-tailed shearwaters killed by animals, but this time the predators have wiped out the entire population of the indigenous seabirds that formerly nested in 4 acres at the refuge.

"If we don't get our seabirds back, it's unlikely the restoration work will ever reach its full potential," said Scott Fisher, project manager of the Maui Coastal Land Trust, which is protecting and preserving 250 acres of Waihee Coastal Dunes and wetlands between Waihee Park and Waihee Point.

Fisher said the wedge-tailed shearwaters, or uau kani, help bring nutrients from the sea back to the land and are an important part of the ecosystem, Fisher said. He added that in the past, seabirds like the uau kani dominated Maui's isthmus.

Since the trust has been monitoring the birds for five years, chicks survived to leave the refuge only in 2005 and 2006, Fisher said.

The latest predator attack on the birds occurred Oct. 23 as Fisher and others, including state wildlife biologist Fern Duvall, were going to place bands on the birds for tracking purposes.

Instead, they found six dead shearwaters along with eight empty burrows.

Fisher said that whatever was in the burrow had been killed or dragged somewhere else.

The refuge had around 25 birds, including adults and chicks, Fisher said.

Uau kani are found across the Central Pacific, but in Hawaii their populations have been forced to the offshore islands by predation and loss of their nesting grounds to development. They nest in shallow burrows that they build in coastal dunes, where they and their chicks are vulnerable to cats, dogs, mongooses and rats.

Maui individuals and community groups have worked to care for the birds by placing identification bands on them, as well as trying to keep feral animals and pets, such as dogs and cats, away from the dusky brown birds with white breast feathers.

The last kill was especially heartbreaking for the land trust officials, who in August found three adult uau kani probably killed by dogs as the dead birds were chomped and tossed around and still had slobber covering them.

This time, Fisher said a necropsy was done on the dead birds and officials found out that birds were killed by cats and dogs.

Fisher said that although the threat of people walking their dogs or letting their dogs loose in or around the refuge has diminished since the last kill, there is still a problem with dogs, cats and feral animals in the area.

He said he suspects some people might be dumping their pets there when they can't take care of them.

Fisher said the refuge's neighbors have been good about monitoring their animals as well as calling in reports of animals in the refuge; and he asks others to do the same.

He also asks fishermen to clean their fish away from where birds may be burrowing, because the fish scent attracts cats that also prey on the uau kani.

Even though the results have been disheartening, Duvall said it is not a time to give up and praised the land trust for its efforts.

"It's not time to lay off. It's very hopeful," he said.

Duvall said the Waihee Refuge has a great habitat for birds to nest in as non-native plants and ironwood trees are being removed in the area making nesting conditions similar to those in the days where non-native plants were not abundant.

He said that by removing the added non-native brush, it's also easier for the birds to see the predators.

"They are really stacking the house to their benefit for the birds that will come," he said.

Even before the latest kills, Duvall said the land trust has been doing increased predator control.

He added that the population of the uau kani at the refuge had already been a small one.

But what hurts is having the adult uau kani killed, as Duvall said it takes them about seven years to become sexually mature. He said sexually mature adults return to where they were born to nest.

Duvall said some ways the land trust could entice more of the birds back is by having tape recordings of uau kani sounds that tricks the uau kani, a colony bird, into believing there's a large colony nesting at the reserve.

But he said predators must be controlled before any birds are lured back to make sure that they are also not killed.

Duvall said the refuge is not alone in having problems with predators, as the birds have been hard hit by predators at Kamaole Beach Park III in Kihei.

The uau kani are now gone since they nest from February to November. The breeding pairs lay a single white egg in a burrow on the ground or in natural crevices. The pair takes turns for the two-month incubation period in feeding the chick until it fledges and can leave its burrow, which is generally around October.

The birds have 3-foot wingspans and are designed for months of gliding over the ocean where they feed on baitfish and squid driven to the surface by ahi or other large fish.

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.