Nice new news about the nene! Hawaii’s state bird is being moved from the endangered category to the threatened category, after a half-century effort to move the fowl away from the foul plans and realities of predators, loss of native habitat, and other concerning actions and entities that had the treasured bird’s population down to a paltry (not poultry) 30 birds left in our midst some 60 years ago.
That population has now risen to an estimated 2,800 nene as the efforts to save the endemic bird are proving to be successful. It is estimated that there were more than 250,000 nene traipsing along trails here 250 years ago when people said, “duck, duck… a goose!”
A concerted effort involving the private sector, volunteers, government agencies, and others over the years is paying off. We all know that approaching a nene is a no-no, so even the public relations effort has been generally working.
Strange… humans often respect the rights of other species (including monk seals and honu here) while we are less civil, compassionate, and empathetic with one another. On various topics (impeachment, Constitutional intent, TMT, civil rights, immigration, guns) we have drawn such huge lines in the sand, those lines have become walls. Civil discourse has become civil disgust, trust wavers, and we are all the worse for wear.
We see articles explaining how to act at family gatherings to avoid seismic dust-ups over politics, religion, cell phone misuse, and whether LSU or Ohio State football should rightfully be ranked #1.
How bizarre that common sense and soulful, conscious activism bring (most of) us together over local seals, green sea turtles, and endangered geese, not to mention beloved pet dogs and cats, but we don’t we see enough level-headed debate and discussion when it comes to issues that impact the fragile human race.
Egos, fears, modern internationalism, re-election anxiety, veiled and real threats, repugnant social media, societal changes, mommy didn’t say she loved us enough as kids- who knows. At least we now have the nice nene rebound. Good things often occur when the heart and the head work together for a common cause. The nene revival has shown us what happens when we stop stepping in the poop. Think about it…