Make Your Own Head Day 332 of 2007 33 days left in this year

November 28, 2004:

The Po’o-uli was a Mauian honeycreeper bird, a rare and fragile species which was not even caught alive until September, 1998. Scientists had little opportunity to study it’s habits. In fact, it was rare enough that it had its own genus.

The bird was not discovered until 1973, and was not properly identified until sometime around 1986. It was known for its bandit’s mask around the eyes, a quiet nature, and its voracious appetite for native tree snails. Overdevelopment - cutting of trees - severely reduced its food source, and numbers dwindled. Finishing the bird off were feral cats, the numbers of which exploded in the 1990s on Maui.

The male was never named, but his cells have been frozen. It is hoped that the bird may one day be cloned. (The longer we live, the more this earth resembles the culture of Blade Runner.)

By the way, Hawaii has more species of animal and plant life than any other state, and has the dubious distinction of killing species off faster - mostly through overdevelopment -  than any other state as well. According to Nature Reserve, Hawaii has seen 434 species fall to extinction since records have been kept. The runner up state is Alabama, with 160 species.