first egg laying at Pohakuloa ranged from 21 Sep- 

 tember (1969) to 5 December (1953), and was 

 most frequent during the first 2 weeks in Novem- 

 ber. Time of nesting in the wild is generally simi- 

 lar to that at Pohakuloa. Nene in the wild have 

 nested as early as October and as late as April, 

 depending on weather conditions. 



Nest sites are usually located in kipukas, 

 which tends to isolate nesting pairs. Nests are left 

 uncovered until the last egg is laid, then thoroughly 

 covered with down, leaves, and twigs before the 

 female leaves. The male guards the nest from an 

 elevated lookout point a short distance away and 

 gives warning at the approach of danger. The fe- 

 male leaves the nest when approached during the 

 early stages of incubation, but sits tight during 

 late stages. Males have never been found incubat- 

 ing. Most pairs return to the same kipuka each 

 year. 



Released birds will pair with wild mates as well 

 as with other released birds, although of 56 pairs 

 in the wild, only a few cases of captive reared 

 birds mated with other released individuals were 

 observed. No evidence has been seen of renesting 

 if the nest is deserted; in contrast, renesting is 

 common in captivity when the first clutch has 

 hatched and young have been removed (Hawaii 

 Div. Fish and Game 1972). 



In 1956-57, the breeding area at Keauhou on 

 Mauna Loa had at least 6 adult pairs and 1 "un- 

 employed" bird; 12 young were produced, for an 

 average of 2 young per pair. The one unmated 

 bird indicates either that reproduction was poor 

 the preceding year or that most nonbreeders 

 spend their time elsewhere (Elder and Woodside 

 1958). 



MANAGEMENT AND CONSERVATION 



In 1949, lUCN placed the Hawaiian Goose on 

 its list of the 13 most threatened bird species in 

 the world, stimulating the beginning of a restora- 

 tion program with $6,000 appropriated by the 

 Territory of Hawaii. Captive rearing was started at 

 a former Civilian Conservation Corps Camp at 

 Pohakuloa, on the saddle between Mauna Loa and 

 Mauna Kea, with 4 birds from Herbert C. Ship- 

 man's aviary in Hilo, 1 from the Honolulu Zoo, 

 and 1 wild bird caught by a hunter's dog. In 

 1950, 2 birds were reared at Pohakuloa. In 1951, 

 3 were sent from Shipman's aviary to the wild- 

 fowl Trust at Slimbridge, England, to start a rear- 

 ing project there. In 1958, the U.S. Fish and Wild- 



life Service provided a grant of $15,000 per year, 

 later increased to $25,000, for a nene restoration 

 project. The nene was officially designated the 

 territorial— now State— bird of Hawaii (Ripley 

 1965). 



In early attempts at propagation, only 1 in 5 

 eggs hatched at either Pohakuloa or Slimbridge. 

 After about 10 years of frustratingly poor pro- 

 duction, inbreeding was identified as the cause, so 

 several wild birds were added to the captive flock. 

 The result was to almost triple the yield of fertile 

 eggs. Careful selection of goslings for quality 

 eliminated a "hairy dowTi" mutant. Old and un- 

 productive adults were also culled from stock 

 (Zimmerman 1975). 



Through the 1973-74 breeding season, 1,306 

 goslings were raised at Pohakuloa and about one- 

 third as many at Slimbridge and other sites in 

 Europe and North America. Most of these birds 

 have been released to the wild— 934 on Hawaii 

 and 391 on Maui. The non-Pohakuloa reared 

 birds were released on Maui, all before 1971. 

 Since 1971, only Pohakuloa-reared birds have 

 been released on both islands. Production at 

 Pohakuloa has been between 100 and 150 gosHngs 

 per year at an average cost of $250.00 per gosling 

 (D. Woodside in Zimmerman 1975). 



Birds are released into the wild in a flightless 

 stage, mostly as young between 2 and 4 months 

 old, but some as molting adults, into predator- 

 proof enclosures of habitat having natural food 

 available in addition to artificial food and water. 

 From there, birds fly over the fence into the wild 

 after their flight feathers grow. This is known as 

 the "gentle release" method (Hawaii Div. Fish 

 and Game 1972). The "nene park" method, pro- 

 posed by Peter Scott, where young are hatched 

 under incubating nene in large pens in natural 

 habitat, was tried, but the Hawaii Div. of Fish and 

 Game considered it too costly to build large en- 

 closures and assure predator-proof conditions. 

 Nene park methods would seem to avoid the pos- 

 sibility of imprinting goslings to unnatural condi- 

 tions of artificial brooders and pens, and has 

 other possible advantages (Pratt 1972). No ade- 

 quate testing to show the relative merits of the 

 two methods has been done (Zimmerman 1975). 



Propagated stock has been liberated on the 

 island of Hawaii in three areas known to be fre- 

 quented by nene, starting on 17 March 1960. 

 These areas were established as "sanctuaries" by 

 cooperative agreement with the land owners. 



