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Nene Awareness Day at park Wednesday

Events scheduled at Hosmer Grove

The Maui News

Haleakala National Park marks its annual Nene Awareness Day on Wednesday with special activities and talks about “the world’s most endangered geese.”

Events are scheduled for 10 a.m. to noon at Hosmer Grove with a self-guided “Treasure Hunt” on the nature trail. Participants will find five stamps along the trail and stamp postcards provided by the park. At the end of the activity, participants who share with park staff how to protect the nene will receive the “he kia’i nene au” pledge card and a prize.

Nene Awareness Day information also will be available at the Headquarters Visitor Center located at 7,000 feet. Prizes and postcards are provided by the park’s cooperating partner, Hawai’i Pacific Parks Association.

The number of nene, the state bird, has climbed from 30 in 1960 to more than 2,800, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said earlier this year.

The March report said that 616 nene live on Maui and 35 on Molokai. They are believed to have evolved from the Canada goose. The nene once occupied all of the Hawaiian Islands, federal officials said.

The nene were wiped out from Maui by the 1890s, according to the park website. They were reintroduced to Haleakala in a release of captive-raised birds.

In 1962, nene from England and Hawaii island were delivered to Maui and were carried into the crater by park rangers, naturalists and Maui Boy Scouts.

They strapped on boxes holding geese and hiked 9.8 miles to Paliku, where the geese were temporarily released in an open-top pen until they adapted to their surroundings.

About 500 nene were released in the park between 1962 and late 1970s. Today, there are about 250 to 350 nene in the park.

For more information about the park visit: nps.gov

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