Christopher Zinn
An odd sign adorns the entrance to the small national park on Norfolk Island, a tiny island in the middle of the South Pacific. It reads: ?Yorlye Cum Look Orn,? which, in the rich Norfolk language of 18th-century English and Tahitian, means: ?Do come and have a look.? And well you might, for here nests what used to be the rarest bird in the world.
The Norfolk Island Morepork owl was once the world?s most endangered species because there was only one left on the island. It could have been as dead as a dodo but for an ingenious campaign to save it which was almost as daring and romantic as the story of the descendants of the Bounty mutineers who settled on Norfolk.
When Captain Cook landed in 1774 there were more than 150 species of small animals and plants, including the distinctive Norfolk Pine, now found around the world. But the arrival of rats and feral cats and the destruction of habitat, including large pines with hollows in their trunks, contributed to a catastrophic decline in the owl population.
By the 1980s, surveys showed that only one owl, a female, remained. She was named Miamiti after the Polynesian wife of Bounty mutineer Fletcher Christian.
In 1987 two male New Zealand Morepork owls were imported as possible mates for Miamiti. The New Zealand birds are the closest relations to the Norfolk owl. Ten nesting boxes were installed and two males called Fletcher and Tintola, a Norfolk word meaning sweetheart, were released.
Unfortunately, Fletcher had a predisposition for flying into car headlights at night and he disappeared. But Tintola picked up the slack. In 1989, two chicks were hatched. Two more hybrid offspring followed in 1990. Miamiti?s nesting efforts have failed since then.
It is believed there are now 18 of the birds on Norfolk and the 1 800 residents of Norfolk are delighted. On a still night near the national park, up to six birds can be heard sorting out their territories. The plan is to try to boost the population to 200, considered a stable number.
ENDS
12