Nene/Hawaiian Goose

By Ameen N

 

 

 

 

 

Habitat

The Hawaiian goose is a peculiar goose that can only be found in Hawaii.Its current habitat is mainly to escape humans and is not of its choosing. It used to live almost all over Hawaii.It has some strange habitats like golf courses.One of the most bizzare and outstanding habitat is volcanic slopes but the survival rate for the chicks is less at higher altitudes. This bird is also the state bird of Hawaii,U.S.A..It has a wide variety of habitats and feet with less webbing to help it move around in them.It doesn’t migrate.

 

Food

Even though introduced plants aren’t a problem,the hawaiian goose prefers native ones.it eats a not so large variety of food including grass, seeds(usually from grass), and fruits.It likes the coastal strawberry which is actually white.Its favorite food is the ohelo berry(Vaccinium reticulatum).The berry, despite its red to pink colouring, is a type of blueberry. It also has a mutual symbiotic relationship with the berry: it eats the berry and spreads its seeds that helps the plant reproduce

 

Human impact

The first humans to possibly cause harm to this goose were not the aboriginals but were the settlers from Polynesia who brought their pets with them to the islands of hawaii, along with them came rats. The settlers brought mongooses with them possibly as pets or to get rid of the rats, but if they brought them to get rid of the rats, it would fail because mongooses are diurnal and rats are nocturnal.The mongooses, pets, and rats all found the hawaiian goose and its eggs easy prey. There also weren’t any restrictions against hunting, so people were able to kill it. The lowest it has ever gone in population is 30 geese total but, with conservation efforts, this number has increased to 2000 geese and the number is rising.The main reason the population has increased is by breeding and reintroducing it to the wild.

 

Slogan

“Let's have a truce with the hawaiian goose.” 

 

Credits

Google                                                                                        https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/condor/v049n03/p0108-p0120.pdf                                                                                        http://nene.net/notes/na_nene.html                                                                                        http://www.konicaminolta.com/kids/endangered_animals/library/sky/hawaiian-goose.html                                                                                        https://www.fws.gov/pacificislands/fauna/higoose.html                                  https://www.hawaii.com/discover/nene                                                            http://seapics.com/feature-subject/birds/nene-pictures.html                                                                   http://greenglobaltravel.com/2012/05/19/endangered-species-spotlight-nene-goose-a-k-a-hawaiian-goose/                                                                    http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/22679929                                 http://www.ducks.org/hunting/waterfowl-id/hawaiian-nene-goose                 http://www.aloha-hawaii.com/hawaii/nene/                                                      http://www.threeringranch.org/animals/nene.html                                            http://www.aloha-hawaii.com/hawaii/nene/