Rare chicks ‘once shrouded in mystery' hatched in Brazil. See ‘blue-eyed' babies
It was the call of a bird, and hoping to identify it, Rafael Bessa recorded the sound and played it back.
Then, a blue-eyed ground dove appeared for the first time in more than 70 years, according to the American Bird Conservancy.
In the years since the rare bird's rediscovery, researchers and wildlife officials have been working across the globe to try and protect the critically endangered species.
From the Chester Zoo in the United Kingdom, bird experts flew to Brazil to help the species take another step forward.
'Conservationists are celebrating the successful hand-rearing of a trio of blue-eyed ground doves (Columbina cyanopis), a rare species found only in Brazil,' the Chester Zoo said in a June 18 news release. 'With fewer than 11 adults left in the wild, the successful breeding of these chicks brings hope for the future of the species.'
Researchers are learning more about the species 'once shrouded in mystery,' the zoo said, as well as what has been threatening their population.
A team selected a few wild-laid eggs to try and incubate in a 'specially designed breeding facility' to provide 'around-the-clock care and attention' to the 'tiny and delicate birds,' according to the release and a June 18 Facebook post.
'The hope is that once the blue-eyed ground doves reach maturity, they'll begin breeding in their specially designed aviaries at Parque das Aves, growing the insurance population for the species,' the zoo said. 'The long-term vision is to build a strong, self-sustaining population that will help secure the future of the blue-eyed ground dove in the wild.'
The species was once plentiful in Brazil's savanna, or Cerrado, until farming and timber plantations took over the landscape, according to the zoo.
Today, the species is only found in Botumirim, Minas Gerais, in east-central Brazil, the zoo said.
Blue-eyed ground doves are known for their cinnamon-colored feathers and their vibrant blue eyes, matched by blue spots on their wings, according to the American Bird Conservancy.
The doves eat seeds and small insects found living in the soil, the conservancy said, and relies on native grass species to provide a habitat for its prey. Their population is also near freshwater and has been seen foraging in the shallows for food.
'Seeing these chicks is exciting. Each hatching represents a real chance to reverse the fate of this species. It is a joy and also a great responsibility. With the arrival of these three new individuals, Parque das Aves is now home to six blue-eyed ground doves. All are being carefully monitored and are part of a coordinated reproductive management plan,' Paloma Bosso, technical director of Parque das Aves, said in the release.
Chester Zoo is in Chester, in west-central England.
The Parque das Aves is in southwestern Brazil, near the borders with Paraguay and Argentina.
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Miami Herald
28-06-2025
- Miami Herald
Shorebirds in Florida are losing habitat. Living shorelines are part of the solution
Editor's note: Before this story was published, Shiloh Schulte, a senior shorebird scientist with Manomet Conservation Sciences, died in a helicopter crash while in Alaska doing conservation work. Schulte coordinated the American Oystercatcher Working Group, the multi-state species recovery partnership to which Florida belongs. Even as populations dwindle for hundreds of bird species across the United States, there are some success stories taking flight: like for the American oystercatcher, one of Florida's most iconic — and threatened — shorebirds. Compared to 15 years ago, the oystercatcher population that breeds along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts is up 43%, according to the American Bird Conservancy. There are nearly 15,000 oystercatchers in North America today,compared to about 10,000 in 2008, according to Shiloh Schulte, a former senior shorebird scientist with Manomet Conservation Sciences. It's a welcome outlier in the world of shorebird conservation, Schulte said. 'Shorebirds, as a species group, are declining rapidly. And oystercatchers are one of the few that's not.' Schulte first began working with American oystercatchers in the early 2000s, when he participated in an expansive aerial survey of North American shorebirds revealing the species was at risk. 'We flew the whole coast, the Atlantic coast and then the Gulf, in a little Cessna at about 400 feet up.' The initial national survey revealed oystercatchers were threatened by habitat loss, Schulte said. The species doesn't move inland, depending on coastal habitats and forage to survive. Before long, Schulte started coordinating the multi-state working group credited for helping drive oystercatchers' gains since 2008. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is involved in the working group, and so is the Florida Shorebird Alliance, a statewide network of local partnerships focused on shorebird and seabird conservation. Within the network, volunteers contribute to the state's long-term monitoring data by helping survey and count bird populations throughout the year. Volunteer David Hartgrove was one of the FSA's very first members. Today, Hartgrove is co-conservation chair for Halifax River Audubon, one of three Audubon Florida chapters in Volusia County. For about 20 years now, Hartgrove has been monitoring oystercatchers who nest on the Halifax River in Port Orange, he said one June morning from a pavilion at Port Orange Causeway Park. Steps away from the park's fishing pier and boat launch, Hartgrove uses a spotting scope — basically, a telescope — to view nesting oystercatchers on three spoil islands (one of which is a state-designated Critical Wildlife Area). 'If I've got oystercatchers that I know are incubating eggs over here, I'll be here three or four times a week, at least,' Hartgrove said. Right now, in late June, most young oystercatchers have hatched and are getting ready to fly. Holding onto habitat Looking collectively at all the years he's been tracking oystercatchers in Port Orange, Hartgrove said, the population appears relatively stable. 'It's not going up, it's not going down. It's pretty much staying the same all the time,' Hartgrove said. An oystercatcher parent and two chicks stand on a spoil island serving as a nesting site in Mosquito Lagoon, the northernmost section of the Indian River Lagoon, on May 27, 2025. That's despite a range of threats facing shorebirds in Florida, from predators and human interference to nest overwash from storms and rising high tides. On the Nature Coast, which draws in the largest concentration of wintering oystercatchers each year, longer-lasting high tides corresponded with a 7.3% decline in annual survival over 12 years, according to a 2023 study by FWC researchers. Co-author Janell Brush with FWC's Fish and Wildlife Research Institute leads the agency's research on seabirds and shorebirds. For Brush, the study's results underscore what she said is her biggest concern for oystercatchers in Florida: habitat loss. 'With the tides getting higher and higher, less habitat is available for oystercatchers at high tide,' Brush said. 'With the degradation of coastal habitats due to repeated storms and erosion, we've been focusing our attention more on: how can we restore and enhance the habitats where these birds want to be?' Ideally, oystercatchers will return to the same nesting site year after year, preferably while keeping their distance from other oystercatchers (although if the habitat is just too good to pass up, like at Cedar Key, they'll begrudgingly nest in closer quarters together, Brush said). But as Florida becomes increasingly developed, especially near the coast, prime nesting habitat is getting harder to come by. 'The more developed an area you have, the less suitable habitat that you have that's available for species like oystercatchers to nest,' Brush said. Oystercatchers like to nest in low-lying coastal areas, above the high tide line. And it's especially key for their nesting habitat to be near a food source, which for oystercatchers is primarily (and perhaps unsurprisingly) oysters. 'The closer that food source is to the oystercatchers and oystercatcher chicks, the more likely those chicks are going to survive,' Brush said. Unlike most shorebird babies, young oystercatchers can't feed themselves right away. They need time to learn their parents' technique for cracking open mollusk shells, and for their beaks to grow long enough to do so. In the meantime, oystercatcher parents take turns watching their young and foraging for food nearby — which, in Central Florida, usually means a trip to the nearest oyster reef. Supporting a 'habitat mosaic' Globally, a majority of oyster habitats have been lost, due largely to decades of overharvesting and coastal urbanization. Reflecting this trend, the Indian River Lagoon has lost about 63% of its oyster reef acreage since 1943, according to Linda Walters, a marine biology professor at the University of Central Florida. Since 2007, Walters and the lab she runs at UCF have been working to restore oyster reefs in the lagoon's northernmost section, the Mosquito Lagoon. Boating activity and sea level rise have caused damage, breaking up reefs into smaller pieces and reducing the estuary's overall oyster coverage. That loss can have big consequences for a complex marine ecosystem like the Indian River Lagoon. 'Oysters filter the water. They make it so the seagrass can thrive, which makes it so the fish can thrive, and the crabs, the other invertebrates,' Walters said. To put it simply, more oysters means a healthier lagoon. That, in turn, is as good for ecotourism as it is for shorebirds who depend on the estuary for habitat and to forage for food, Walters said. 'The more good habitat we have, the more birds we'll have,' Walters said. The oyster reef restorations led by Walters and completed in collaboration with local conservation and community partners have translated to documented habitat improvements in and around the Mosquito Lagoon, according to UCF. But this work supporting the estuary's 'habitat mosaic,' as Walters calls it, hasn't stopped with oyster reefs. Seagrass restoration is the newest layer of Walters's conservation work, which in 2011 also began to include living shoreline projects. Living shorelines are a type of green infrastructure technique, using native vegetation and other natural materials to stabilize shorelines against erosion while enhancing biodiversity, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Walters described it as 'the least destructive way to protect a shoreline.' 'We are trying to get it back to what it was naturally,' Walters said. 'So as opposed to using any sort of hard armoring, [like] a seawall or putting really large rocks out, this is the low-tech way to protect your shoreline.' Seawalls, living shorelines and hybrid solutions Seawalls are hard structures, usually made of concrete or metal, installed along shorelines to protect against erosion. They can be very effective at stabilizing coastal areas, at least for a time. But seawalls also have some big drawbacks, including for wildlife habitat, according to Jason Evans, an ecologist by training who runs Stetson University's Institute for Water and Environmental Resilience. 'We've simplified these ecosystems,' Evans said. 'We've gone in and destroyed enormous amounts of coastal wetlands in Florida, [by] putting in these seawalls.' Shorebirds tend to avoid seawalls and other man-made structures built to defend shorelines from sea level rise and erosion, according to some studies, including one from the United States Geological Survey. Some creatures, like barnacles, can survive on a seawall. But generally, the hard-armoring technique tends to make marine ecosystems less productive, Evans said. 'They're very poor habitat, compared to what the natural habitat would be.' Hardening a shoreline can displace important organisms, like oysters, which are in themselves 'natural stabilizers of shorelines,' Evans said. In the long-term, seawalls can actually make erosion worse, especially along sandy beaches, where waves crashing against one side of the seawall can scour out sand on the other side. 'You oftentimes will lose your beach a lot faster because of the seawall,' Evans said. A quarter of Florida's seawall permits issued since 2004 are for structures in Volusia County, where Mosquito Lagoon begins, according to a 2024 analysis commissioned by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Mosquito Lagoon stretches south into Brevard County, which prohibits the installation of new shoreline hardening structures except in emergency situations. Good for birds, good for fish — and good for us In certain cases, seawalls might be the best way to stabilize a shoreline, Evans said: such as at a port, where huge waves are constantly rolling in from ship traffic. But generally, he said, living shorelines are a highly effective, more environmentally friendly — and, often, more affordable — solution. '[It's] a win-win,' Evans said. 'We're getting the fisheries back that we want, we're getting the water quality back that we want. We're getting those benefits, and we're also getting the benefit of reduced amounts of erosion.' Hybrid solutions, like a buried seawall, can also be an effective alternative to fully hardening a shoreline, Evans said. For those structures, a hardened seawall serves as the core, buried beneath a sandy dune layer that often features native vegetation more conducive to wildlife habitat. For oystercatchers in the Mosquito Lagoon, a living shoreline can serve as valuable high ground for the birds to roost during high tide, without straying far from the oyster reefs they depend on for food. And a living system of mangroves and marsh grasses comes with another superpower, Evans said: built-in resilience. The native plants' roots help hold sediment from the lagoon in place, effectively allowing the land to 'grow up.' 'Even as the sea rises, then your mangroves can, in theory, keep up with it, because they're grabbing sediments,' Evans said. 'Just like a seawall is engineered, living shorelines are engineered: to stabilize, to withstand storms, and even in some cases to withstand a little bit of sea level rise.' Shorelines and beaches naturally shift over time, drifting and changing shape with the winds and waves. That makes a living shoreline's capacity to adapt to its surroundings — unlike a static seawall — one of its biggest strengths, said Melinda Donnelly, an assistant research scientist and biology professor at UCF who works with Walters. Right now, Donnelly is working on a model to help predict where in the Indian River Lagoon living shorelines are most likely to succeed, based on variables like tidal conditions and wave energy thresholds for different plants. Many previous living shoreline projects have largely relied on trial and error, Donnelly said. The goal is for the model to help maximize time and resources when planning how to stabilize a shoreline, and ultimately 'end up with sort of a combination of methods, rather than just basically hardening every shoreline throughout the lagoon,' Donnelly said. Especially over time, more living shorelines will translate to a healthier lagoon ecosystem overall, Walters said. That means more attractive shorebird habitat. 'It's good for birds, it's good for fish. It's good for commercial species, recreational species,' Walters said. 'It's good for all the plants and just everything in the lagoon. So basically, it means it's good for us.' 'A lot of potential' Moving forward, managing the species' continued recovery in Florida will require prioritizing ways to help nesting oystercatchers. Right now, there are only 419 breeding adults documented statewide, according to Brush with FWC. In 2013, there were also fewer than 500, according to the agency's species action plan. 'Because there's not that many birds, every single nesting pair is important. And every time you get a new nesting pair entering the breeding population, that's huge,' Brush said. Specifically along the Atlantic coast in Central Florida, there is great opportunity to help grow oystercatcher populations, Brush said. 'In general, where we are seeing birds try to enter the breeding population in great numbers [in Florida] is along the Atlantic coast.' But the challenge of habitat loss and degradation persists, especially as Central Florida's coasts are developed and hardened. If more oystercatchers here are to grow and breed successfully, improving habitat conditions will be critical. 'At some point, we will be limited by available habitat,' Brush said. 'There's a lot of potential to grow the population of oystercatchers on the Atlantic coast … if we have some more resources to dedicate toward habitat enhancement and restoration.' While resources are limited, Brush said, FWC is adept at making good use of them. 'We're constantly in FWC keeping the pulse on how species are doing, and where we need to allocate resources where species may not be doing as well.' One huge part of that equation, Brush said, is partnership. The national oystercatcher working group helps foster collaboration between states. 'We watched our local population improve in Florida as part of that network,' Brush said. 'The state of Florida can't do it without our conservation partners.' A culture of partnership will be crucial to continuing American oystercatchers' recovery, according to conservation experts. Although oystercatchers have made promising gains in the last 15 years, the work is by no means over. The (flight) path forward: 'It takes a village' Oystercatchers continue to face existential threats, from predators like rats and raccoons to habitat loss caused by human interference, sea level rise and storms. 'The difference is we as a working group have discovered many of the ways to manage and mitigate many of those threats, as long as we have people in the field doing that work,' Schulte said. That last piece is critical — and a growing concern for wildlife experts like Schulte, as the Trump administration's sweeping 'waste-reduction' measures usher longtime experts out of staff positions and interrupt some grant-funded projects already underway. It's not uncommon for conservation funds to fluctuate between (and sometimes during) presidential administrations, Schulte said. But this time is different. 'There's always uncertainty. It's never been like: 'We're stopping everything,' and no necessary guarantee as to whether it's going back,' Schulte said. 'We haven't seen that before, at all, where a project that's underway gets canceled.' Nationally and within states where oystercatchers breed, including Florida, government agencies are now missing some core personnel who made up the 'bedrock' of shorebird conservation, Schulte said. 'We're seeing it kind of everywhere, especially with state and federal employees, who are usually the most consistent and stable aspect of the group,' Schulte said in late May. 'Some of these people were coordinating multiple sets of volunteers, or out there in the field themselves, doing a lot of this assessment work.' Departing experts take with them a depth of specialized knowledge, often built up over decades of fieldwork and experience. 'It's a huge loss. And it's hard to quantify,' Schulte said. 'It's not universal. But it's very widespread, and it is having significant impacts on our ability to do basic conservation work.' Fewer experienced people in the field means fewer, less robust assessments of shorebird health, Schulte said. 'We actually won't know as much information about how well the birds are doing … or what the challenges are.' Restoring shorebird populations is a long-term commitment, Schulte said. Even in the smoothest of political climates, armed with the newest and best science, conservation experts know their work is bound to involve a certain level of uncertainty. Instead of running away from the inevitable, Brush, with FWC, said she focuses on learning from the (literally) changing tides. 'We need to keep looking for opportunities while we're navigating the uncertainty. 'That uncertainty is always looming,' Brush said. 'When a storm hits, you have to be looking for opportunity as you're evaluating your habitat loss.' Adaptation is no strange concept in a state where hurricanes routinely ravage and refashion coastlines and communities. Still, the ability to quickly pivot and seek out new possible solutions requires a strong foundation, like the network of partners making up the oystercatcher working group. And citizen scientists, like Hartgrove in Port Orange, are also 'absolutely instrumental' to shorebird recovery, Brush said. 'It takes a village,' Brush said. 'There's always opportunities. You just have to look for them.'
Miami Herald
19-06-2025
- Miami Herald
Rare chicks ‘once shrouded in mystery' hatched in Brazil. See ‘blue-eyed' babies
In 2015, an ornithologist conducting field work in Brazil heard a sound he hadn't heard before. It was the call of a bird, and hoping to identify it, Rafael Bessa recorded the sound and played it back. Then, a blue-eyed ground dove appeared for the first time in more than 70 years, according to the American Bird Conservancy. In the years since the rare bird's rediscovery, researchers and wildlife officials have been working across the globe to try and protect the critically endangered species. From the Chester Zoo in the United Kingdom, bird experts flew to Brazil to help the species take another step forward. 'Conservationists are celebrating the successful hand-rearing of a trio of blue-eyed ground doves (Columbina cyanopis), a rare species found only in Brazil,' the Chester Zoo said in a June 18 news release. 'With fewer than 11 adults left in the wild, the successful breeding of these chicks brings hope for the future of the species.' Researchers are learning more about the species 'once shrouded in mystery,' the zoo said, as well as what has been threatening their population. A team selected a few wild-laid eggs to try and incubate in a 'specially designed breeding facility' to provide 'around-the-clock care and attention' to the 'tiny and delicate birds,' according to the release and a June 18 Facebook post. 'The hope is that once the blue-eyed ground doves reach maturity, they'll begin breeding in their specially designed aviaries at Parque das Aves, growing the insurance population for the species,' the zoo said. 'The long-term vision is to build a strong, self-sustaining population that will help secure the future of the blue-eyed ground dove in the wild.' The species was once plentiful in Brazil's savanna, or Cerrado, until farming and timber plantations took over the landscape, according to the zoo. Today, the species is only found in Botumirim, Minas Gerais, in east-central Brazil, the zoo said. Blue-eyed ground doves are known for their cinnamon-colored feathers and their vibrant blue eyes, matched by blue spots on their wings, according to the American Bird Conservancy. The doves eat seeds and small insects found living in the soil, the conservancy said, and relies on native grass species to provide a habitat for its prey. Their population is also near freshwater and has been seen foraging in the shallows for food. 'Seeing these chicks is exciting. Each hatching represents a real chance to reverse the fate of this species. It is a joy and also a great responsibility. With the arrival of these three new individuals, Parque das Aves is now home to six blue-eyed ground doves. All are being carefully monitored and are part of a coordinated reproductive management plan,' Paloma Bosso, technical director of Parque das Aves, said in the release. Chester Zoo is in Chester, in west-central England. The Parque das Aves is in southwestern Brazil, near the borders with Paraguay and Argentina.
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Yahoo
Drones drop mosquitoes over Maui to save honeycreepers
Conservationists working to save Hawaii's endangered, native birds are now using drones to deliver lab-reared, male mosquitoes over Maui. The male mosquitoes have a special purpose—to mate with wild females in the forests while carrying a naturally occurring bacteria that results in sterile eggs, thereby breaking the breeding cycle and reducing the population. Scientists hope this 'incompatible insect technique ' will reduce the overall mosquito population in order to combat avian malaria, the primary cause of decline in Hawaiian honeycreeper species. Over time, they hope these native bird populations will then have a chance to recover. 'Reducing invasive mosquito populations is absolutely critical in preventing the extinction of Hawaii's vulnerable honeycreepers, ' said Chris Farmer, the American Bird Conservancy's Hawaii Director, in a statement. 'We have the technology to break the avian disease cycle in Hawaii, and a fighting chance to restore populations.' He called the drone deployment a milestone, saying he expects the new technology to expedite the delivery of millions of mosquitoes, with more flexibility. The first drones were deployed over Maui in April, according to drone pilot Adam Knox, after some engineering to figure out the best way to release them over the remote terrain. Knox is testing out three different types of drones for the release of the mosquitoes, which are released inside of cone-shaped pods made of biodegradable paper pulp. Each pod contains about 1, 000 mosquitoes. These pods are placed inside of a special transport box attached to the drone—sort of like a cooler—that keeps the pods at a controlled temperature due to the sensitivities of the male mosquitoes. Several pods are released at a time. In order to release the pods, Knox, ABC's aerial deployment of mosquitoes project manager, had to work with his team to figure out a release mechanism that would work over mountainous terrain with significant elevation changes, strong winds, frequent rains, and mist. The drops have to be consistent while flying over thousands of acres despite these challenges. Knox said the test flights have shown it can be done by drone, which can be more flexible than manual drops via helicopter, without risks to humans on aerial flights. It is the first known instance of specialized mosquito pods being dropped by drones. 'There is a whole new world out there in terms of utility with this tool, ' Knox said. 'This opens up a lot of possibilities now and into the future.' Knox expects to continue refining the process, and to test out the drones over Kauai as well, in the near future. Manual drops via contracted helicopters, meanwhile, have been ongoing since November 2023, twice a week, and will continue. Conservationists are racing to save several Hawaiian birds—specifically native honeycreepers—on the brink of extinction. Last summer the akikiki on Kauai was declared, meaning only a handful were left in the wild and that the species could not sustain itself in the wild. Some akikiki, however, are being raised in captivity by the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. Scientists believe if no action is taken, mosquitoes could cause other Hawaiian bird species to quickly decline and vanish. Farmer said at least 33 species of honeycreeper are now extinct, and many of the 17 that remain, including the kiwikiu and akohekohe on Maui, and the akekee on Kauai, are highly endangered. The kiwikiu, or Maui parrotbill, found on the slopes of Haleakala, have a population of less than 150 individuals. The akohekohe, or crested honeycreeper, also found in the high-elevation forests of Haleakala, have a population of fewer than 2, 000. Due to climate change, mosquitoes have begun to move to higher elevations than in past years, he said, encroaching on the last remaining refuges available to surviving honeycreepers. The birds are facing numerous obstacles to survival, including habitat loss and degradation due to grazing by hoofed animals, along with invasive predators such as rats that prey on their eggs and chicks. The No. 1 drivers of the extinction crisis are believed to be mosquito-borne diseases such as avian malaria and avian pox. Scientists say a single bite from an infected mosquito could be fatal to a honeycreeper. Reducing mosquitoes After years of study and analysis—and a—a multi-agency group made up of ABC, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources and others, embarked on the mosquito suppression project. Collectively, the group calls itself Birds, Not Mosquitoes, and it has stood strongly behind the mission to reduce the invasive southern house mosquito population in high-elevation forests across the state to stem avian malaria. The male southern house mosquitoes do not bite or transmit diseases, according to experts, but carry a certain strain of Wolbachia bacteria which results in unhatched eggs. The project was opposed by Hawaii Unites, a nonprofit community group, that in 2023 to stop the multi-agency group from continuing the project. Hawaii Unites, founded by president Tina Lia, expressed concerns about releasing any 'biopesticide lab-reared Wolbachia-bacteria-infected mosquitoes ' on the fragile ecoystems of Halaekala National Park or Hawaii's other forest reserves. The group was concerned about unforeseen consequences of releasing the lab-reared mosquitoes. Both the state Board of Land and Natural Resources and National Park Service had approved a 300-page environment assessment and finding of no significant impact for the project. Hawaii Unites said a more comprehensive environmental impact statement was needed. But a state Environmental Court ruled the project could go forward—and following an appeal by Hawaii Unites arguing that the EA did not have enough science and documentation to back its claims of being safe for the environment—an appeals court in April. Birds, Not Mosquitoes prevailed in obtaining regulatory approvals to move forward on its conservation plan. Conservation drones It is not the first time drones have been deployed to combat invasive species in Hawaii. DLNR has shared in recent years that it used drones to drop citric acid over parts of Oahu, including Waimanalo and Kuliouou, in order to help control invasive coqui frog populations. The deployment of mosquitoes with Wolbachia also has been used in the past in Texas and California, as well as Mexico, Singapore, Thailand and Australia to reduce mosquito-born diseases such as dengue, Zika and Chikungunya. The use of the incompatible insect technique to help reduce avian malaria in Hawaii, however, is a novel one. Farmer likes to describe the process as a sort of 'invisible barrier to protect our birds high up in the forests.' While predator-proof fencing has been erected at refuges and forests to protect birds and ohia trees, this introduction of sterilizing male mosquitoes forms a sort of 'mosquito-proof fence.' Conservationists believe their mission is time-critical, and that the project must move forward quickly. They are hopeful, but say it will take time to determine how effective this technique is in saving Hawaii's native honeycreepers. 'It takes time to knock them (invasive mosquitoes ) down and to reduce the population, ' Farmer said. 'We're monitoring and analyzing data. As soon as we can tell one way or another, we'll certainly let the public know.'
