Like many family stories, this one begins with the mother. Mom is an adult female nēnē, one of Hawai‘i’s State Birds, banded NTC.
Last year one of her goslings was abducted from Wailoa River State Recreation Area. Police and conservation officers followed leads and a local family, who witnessed the bird-napping, followed her until she was apprehended. The young bird is back at the park and said to be thriving.
Last week, post-mortem testing implicated a disease called toxoplasmosis, spread in cat feces, as the cause of death of one of NTC’s goslings born this year. Toxoplasmosis can be deadly to nēnē, and to critically endangered Hawaiian monk seals. This happened at Queen Lili‘uokalani Park and Gardens, along Banyan Drive in Hilo, where people are regularly feeding feral cats and nēnē are eating right alongside them.
“They continue to feed the cats, and it doesn’t seem like the loss of the gosling has really made a difference in how often they feed,” commented Raymond McGuire, a wildlife biologist with the DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW).
He’s taken it upon himself to remove paper plates full of cat food and dump them in the trash several days a week, several times a day. That’s one action wildlife managers are taking. They’re also working closely with a nonprofit organization to address the continuing rift between cat feeders and wildlife protectors.
“It’s frustrating because I know the community loves the nēnē, here. I got so many phone calls from people who were elated a nēnē hatched in the park. For a month, they (the nēnē family) looked happy, and people were happy because they get to see wildlife in their backyards,” McGuire said.
McGuire says there’s a disconnect between feral cat feeders, who obviously love animals, and their actions that harm and kill wild animals like nēnē. “We don’t want to go after them with fines and citations. But their actions are having a clear effect on our native wildlife and our threatened endangered wildlife. Not just nēnē, but monk seals. And not just toxoplasmosis, but cats attack and eat native birds. We want people to understand there’s a place for these cats. Keep them home. Never abandon a cat,” he said.
Wildlife managers and the people behind a new nonprofit working on the issue ask, “What do you want in the future. Do you want more cat colonies, or do you actually want to see native wildlife in your backyard?”
Jordan Lerma of Nēnē Research and Conservation says his group is trying to shift the conversation and bring both animal-loving sides together to find solutions. The nonprofit previously worked to facilitate discussions with cat groups after interactions at Queen’s Marketplace at Waikoloa reached a boiling point. Heated encounters with officers from the DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement (DOCARE), and dozens of people who’d been feeding cats regularly, ended with a reduction of cat and nene interactions in the area.
“My primary job is as a marine biologist with Cascadia Research. We were troubled with the difficulty of reaching segments of the community with good conservation practices. Nēnē are an easy species to connect the community to conservation. I think the cat community are animal lovers and I think they mean well. We just need to be able to work together to solve these hard problems that prioritize native species.”
“I think a lot of these people are putting their life savings on the line to care for these animals that they love. I want to acknowledge and respect that. We want to facilitate these conversations with county, state, and federal officials in order to give these people the resources they need to be able to remove, eliminate, or reduce cat interactions with native species,” Lerma added.
His group has introduced a cat mapping tool to get a better idea of the extent of feral cat populations, estimated to be between 500,000 to 1,000,000 cats on Hawai‘i Island.
You can trace the history of mother nēnē NTC in the video below and read and watch more by clicking the links.