Rare Hawaiian Bird: now extinct?

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The last known Po’o-uli, a very rare type of Hawaiian Honeycreeper, has died in captivity from avian malaria.

Discovered only as recently as 1973, and given the scientific nomenclature Malamprosops phaeosoma, as few as 200 were recorded in the world - a figure that plummeted to just 3 by 1997. Despite desperate attempts by conservationists to encourage the three known remainging individuals to mate, no progress was made. Only one individual had been sighted this year and was captured in September of this year, in the hope of starting a captive breeding program.

It’s death marks the possibly extinction of yet another species of Hawaiian Honeycreeper - already 13 have become extinct since classification, and a further 7 species are classed as “Critically Endangered”.

Hawaii has suffered not simply due to the introduction of cats and rodents , that predate on the individual birds and their eggs, but the introduction of mosquitoes has also create new vectors for the spreading of avian malaria.

More on that story: Rare bird falls to avian malaria