William Elder 

 108 Stephens Hall 

 Columbia, Missouri 65201 



Ernest Kosaka 

 Division of Fish and Game 

 1179 Punchbowl Street 

 Honolulu, Hawaii 96813 



PREPARER'S COMMENTS 



Of the 2 to 36 individual nene observed in 

 Hawaii sanctuaries with eggs or young each year 

 from 1966 to 1971, 40% were banded, indicating 

 they were released pen-reared birds, and 60% 

 were unhanded, indicating they were either wild 

 or the offspring of released birds. Since 90% of 

 the birds observed on the summering grounds 

 were unhanded, it appears that this group draws 

 from a wider breeding population than that re- 

 corded in the sanctuaries, where only 60% were 

 unhanded. On the other hand, in 2 years with 

 high counts in the breeding area (32 in 1967 and 

 36 in 1968), 46 and 45 appeared in the summer- 

 ing area in 1967 and 1968, respectively, showing 

 only a small difference in the two annual counts. 

 This would seem to indicate that most of the 

 breeding population of the three sanctuaries 

 moves to the Puu Oo summer area. On the other 

 hand, with over 100 birds observed in the sum- 

 mering area in 2 different years, it would appear 

 that probably less than half of the total popula- 

 tion is observed in either the breeding season or 

 the summer counts in most years. In any case, 

 with data so far presented for Hawaii and Maui, 

 the "educated guess' of 600 for the two islands 

 (Zimmerman 1974) appears far too optimistic 

 and points up the need to establish much more 

 detailed investigation of the population as a pri- 

 mary objective of the nene restoration project in 

 the future. 



It is hoped that a census technique, using 

 transects and census blocks, will be developed by 

 1980. If this approach proves valid in the sanctu- 

 aries, a method for censusing the entire nene 

 range will be devised. 



LITERATURE CITED/SELECTED 

 REFERENCES 



Baldwin, P. H. 1945. The Hawaiian Goose, its 

 distributiou and reduction in numbers. Con- 

 dor 47:27-37. 



Baldwin, P. H. 1947. Food of the Hawaiian Goose. 

 Condor 49:108-120. 



Berger, A. 1972. Hawaiian birdlife. Honolulu, 

 Univ. of Hawaii Press, p. 75. 



Berger, A. 1972a. Hawaiian Birds. 1972. Wilson 

 Bull. 84:212-222. 



Delacour, J. 1954. The waterfowl of the world. 

 Vol. 1. London, Country Life Limited. 



Elder, W. H. 1958. Nene in Hawaii. Preliminary 

 report on the Nene in Hawaii. Wildfowl Trust. 

 Ninth Annual report. 112-117. 



Elder, W. and D. Woodside. 1958. Biology and 

 management of the Hawaiian Goose. Trans. 

 23rd N. Amer. Wildlife Conf. p. 206. 



Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Re- 

 sources (contributed by Ronald L. Walker). 

 1976. Nene restoration project, 1 July 1972- 

 30 June 1975. Elepaio 36(9):104-108. 



Hawaii Division of Fish and Game. 1972. A re- 

 port of the nene restoration program. Unpub- 

 lished administrative report of Hawaii Div. 

 Fish amd Game. 



Kier, J. 1975. Returning the Hawaiian Goose to 

 the wild, pp. 115-123, in Breeding endangered 

 species in captivity, R. D. Martin ed. London, 

 New York, San Francisco, Academic Press. 



Kier, J., H. S. Roberts and R. Warren. 1967. The 

 Hawaiian Goose in Captivity, unpub. ms. 



King, W. In press. (Revised) Red data book Vol. 

 2 - Aves. Internationa] Union for the Conserv- 

 ation of Nature and Natural Resources, Sur- 

 vival Service, Morges, Switzerland. 



Miller, A. H. 1937. Structural modifications in 

 the Hawaiian Goose [Nesochen sandvicensis). 

 A study in adaptive evolution. Univ. Cali- 

 fornia Press 42:1-80. 



Pratt, J. 1972. Research study proposal for inves- 

 tigation of behavior of the Hawaiian Goose 

 under the "Nene park" plan. Elepaio 33:33- 

 34. 



Ripley, S. D. 1965. Saving the Nene, World's rarest 

 goose. Nat. Geog. Nov. 1965:745-754. 



Schwartz, C. W. and E. Schwartz. 1948. An eco- 

 logical survey of the game birds in the 

 Hawiian Islands with recommendations for 

 management. Board of Commissioners of 



