Talk:Hawaiian Goose

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	Birds Portal Hawaiian Goose is part of WikiProject Birds, an attempt at creating a standardized, informative and easy-to-use ornithological resource. If you would like to participate, visit the project page. Please do not substitute this template.
Start	This article has been rated as start-Class on the quality scale.
Low	This article has been rated as low-importance on the importance scale.
WikiProject Birds To-do: edit Major taxonomic overhaul (see here) Create Galloanserae

	Hawaii Portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Hawaiʻi, a WikiProject related to the U.S. state of Hawaiʻi. Please participate by editing the article Hawaiian Goose, or visit the project page for more details.
Start	This article has been rated as Start-Class on the Project's quality scale. (If you rated the article please give a brief summary at comments to explain the ratings.)

Hawaiian Goose is included in the 2007 Wikipedia for Schools, or is a candidate for inclusion in future versions. Please maintain high quality standards, and make an extra effort to include free images, because non-free images cannot be used on the CDs.

Nēnē is the correct usage of Hawaiian diacriticals, not Néné. What's the deal with the acute é. The obscure, unusable Néné title warrants a move of this page to Hawaiian goose, the more widely used term internationally with a redirect from nene, currently a disambiguation page. Gerald Farinas 20:20, 28 Jun 2004 (UTC)

moved to capitalised form as per Wikipedia convention for bird articles. All 1500 or so species articles are capitalised, so I wish people would check what they are doing before moving pages. also mover hadn't evenbothered to fix redirects. jimfbleak 04:56, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I think this page needs more information on the current project to breed these birds and release them into captivity. This species is often used as a case study on genetic diversity, and there is little information about this. Smashrgrl 8:10, 28 July 2005

[edit] Vulnerable

No wonder it is vulnerable if it is a sandwich goose :). It should be interesting to find here what measures, other than reintroduction, are locally taken to protect the species. Thank you. --DLL 21:31, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

(I was a volunteer at Haleakala in the 90s. Let's see what I can remember...) Mongooses, rats, and feral cats are predators that threaten the eggs and chicks of these (ground-nesting) birds. Some are struck by cars. The mortality rate among chicks is high -- I think poor nutrition was also a contributing factor. Generally, habitat loss is a problem. The nene's current range consists mostly of habitat that isn't great for raising chicks. Non-native plants have been replacing some of the nene's preferred foods (cheat grass comes to mind). So one measure is to control predator populations, especially around nesting sites. Another is to keep tourists from attracting birds out onto the roads (by feeding them). Apparently golf also threatens the nene, as they are attracted to golf courses and sometimes get hit by golf balls (not unlike hawks hanging around Tripp Isenhour I suppose). In one case (maybe 10 years ago, if I remember correctly), a tourist intentionally struck and killed a nene on a golf course with his golf club, so prosecuting this guy was yet another local measure that was taken :-) Quaternion (talk) 15:35, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Do they swim?

Do nēnē fish or move about on ponds, estuaries, and other still water? Or is their existence completely landbound? knoodelhed (talk) 18:57, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

Yes. As far as I know, nene once had a very broad range and likely shared some of the wetland areas in the islands. I can't think of too many places these days where nene might have the chance to swim. The linked photo is taken at the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge on the big island. Nene have also been reintroduced along the Napali coast, where freshwater might pool. There are also a couple of tiny lakes at ~7000 elevation in the forest reserves on Haleakala, that I doubt nene visit. So unless they also swim at the Honolulu zoo or take up surfing the Napali breakers, those are the only places that I can think of where nene might swim. Quaternion (talk) 15:06, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "Rarest goose"

This is an often repeated claim. "Rarest" seems poorly defined, but is likely intended to convey that estimated nēnē numbers are lower than those for any other species of goose. The National Park Service webpage was the best reference I could find for this phrase. A google search (goose site:iucnredlist.org) of the red list backs up this claim -- all other listed species of goose do indeed have higher estimates for their population numbers. Nonetheless, I'm don't know how noteworthy the claim really is. For example, the subspecies Recherche Cape Barren Goose may be rarer. Likewise, many geese may be locally rare: the Lesser White-fronted Goose has extremely reduced numbers in Finland and Norway (Red List). And then of course there are the extinct species -- those are quite rare. Quaternion (talk) 17:33, 7 April 2008 (UTC)