My sister is in Hawaii this week. She sent me an e-mail with this photo that also included the following message: “I fed a nene. Put on the blog or die.”
Not wanting to die, here is the photo:
I will say that this particular nene will be having a hard time eating.
***
If you don’t know what a nene is, it is a goose native to Hawaii that derived from an ancient form of Canada goose that got blown to the islands 500,000 years ago.
The species almost went extinct due to predation from pigs, mongooses, and cats, but it was save from extinction through a captive breeding program in England. Sir Peter Scott directed this program at a Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust land in Gloucestershire.
Oh yes, I feed my 200 canada goose decoys like that every morning… Ahahah !
Whew, that was a close one! (LOL)
Was that picture taken at the zoo in Honolulu? If so, I recall when we visited back around 1991 we were slightly disapointed at seeing only one or two of the hawaian bird species we’d read so much about, although, paradoxically, we had already seen the nene at Slimbridge back in England. Hopefully it is different now?
Your sister is funny!
I don’t know what you’re talking about. Invisible food hand fed by the legendary order of the nutty sisters is the natural diet of the wooden nene. Just look how it’s beak shines and it’s feet are… dusty?
Hang on a minute!