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BM: Yeah, it kind of following the pattern we've seen with a lot of native birds, unfortunately
<br /> as things have changed in the landscape they're going to decline. On Mauna Kea
<br /> specifically on Hawaii island, there has been 250 years, basically unmanaged grazing. The
<br /> habitat has been really damaged. It's going to take a long time to recover from those
<br /> lows. You know, in the 90's we had this really bad drought, that really caused the Palila
<br /> population to fall down below 2,000 individuals, at that point they became really
<br /> susceptible to other treats, such as predators such as feral cats, and that cause them to
<br /> continue to decline over time. Every year we are getting new threats, naio thrips, t8tg12
<br /> thri s C r cm r~p„ My cm 2d) are a destructive invasive insect pest from Tasmania that
<br /> attacks the native Hawaiian naio tree (Myoporum sandwicense), causing leaf distortion,
<br /> galling, dieback, and potentially tree death)to Russian thistle(Russian thistle is a summer
<br /> annual weed also known as tumbleweed. It is primarily a weed in sites where the soil has
<br /> been disturbed. When Russian thistle). Which is now invading the Saddle region,
<br /> increasing fire risk. Just new threats are coming in on top of the treats we have been
<br /> already experiencing over the last few 100 years, and it's kind of expecting to see them
<br /> continue to decline. We're learning more so we are able to take more action, but you
<br /> know it's a devasting impact, but we have the tools and the assets to be able to do
<br /> something about it. It's ruff and it's hard to see, but if we keep protecting the habitat and
<br /> if we keep address predators, you know, if we keep trying new things, eventually we are
<br /> going to figure out, what's going to be the key, the key recipe for making sure we keep
<br /> them around and hopefully we build them to recovery.
<br /> What are your latest counts that you have seen?
<br /> BM: Oh yeah,fortunately wejust had a report by USGS of our partners, and forthe last 3 years,
<br /> we actually seen a slight up-tick, and the number of Palila is very, very small. They were
<br /> declining from 2019 to 2022;there is a pretty steady decline in the number of Palila. From
<br /> 2022 to 2024, we have seen a slight increase, so by 2024 we have 666 individuals the
<br /> estimated population, and we got a few more raw detections in 2025 than we did in 2024.
<br /> So hopefully we've seen an even increase from that. It seems, like some of our really high
<br /> intensity management that the Mauna Kea Forest restoration project has been engaging
<br /> in practically the expansion of predator control, and the wildlife program in East Hawaii,
<br /> we've seen a hopeful response to that, really stepped-up management. Ah yeah, only
<br /> time will tell, and we're trying to implement a bunch of new strategies, so, we're hoping
<br /> the next for years to do, we're what we are calling it Rear n Release, we're going try to
<br /> collect eggs from the wild, bring those into captivity, raise them up to fledging age, for
<br /> just a few months and release them back out with the wild flocks, so they can learn their
<br /> wild behavior before they get stuck in captivity
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