I was lucky enough this week to take a trip to Slimbridge Wetland Centre in Gloucester, it was a cold, rainy and seriously blustery day, so the prospect of 'feeding the ducks' didn't appeal quite as much as it might have done on a beautiful, clear spring day.
However, whilst I was there something unexpected happened... I fell in love!
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| Me meeting a Nene for the first time, kijand sharing some grain! |
The Nene (Branta sandvicensis), otherwise know as the Hawaiian Goose is the official bird of the state of Hawaii and the rarest goose in the world, saved from almost inevitable extinction by WWT Slimbridge's founder Sir Peter Scott. There may have been as few as 30 individuals left, but now, numbers stand at around 2500 and they are listed as 'Vulnerable' on the IUCN Red List and are found on 4 of Hawaii's islands and in March of last year, they finally stepped foot on the 5th island; Oahu, for the first time since the 1700's!
It is thought that they are descended from the Canada goose and may have first populated Hawaii's islands around 500,000 years ago when the islands were first established.
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| The beautiful neck pattern of the Nene. |
Some quack, sorry, QUICK facts:
- They are not sexually dimorphic.
- Have only partially webbed feet (thought to allow them to wonder over rocky landscapes)
- Have distinctive ridges in the feather formation down their neck. It was a fantastic experience to get up close to these gentle, tame individuals at WWT, and interesting to see how these ridges quivered as they told other birds off for coming to close to the feed we offered!
- They are herbivorous and spend a large amount of time grazing.
- Eggs are incubated for 30 days after which the goslings remain flightless for 3 months - leaving them at great risk of predation.
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| A helpful Hawaiian shows us the way! |
To find out more about the Nene, click the links within the text or those below in the key sources.
Thanks for reading!
Key Sources:
ARKive: http://www.arkive.org/nene/branta-sandvicensis/#src=portletV3api
BirdLife International (2015) Species factsheet: Branta sandvicensis. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 24/01/2015.
BirdLife International 2012. Branta sandvicensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.3. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 24 January 2015.
WWT's Waterlife Publication: 189: July/Sept 2014.
