Bird Dog Finds First ‘Akē‘akē
For the first time, the night-flying endangered seabird ‘akē‘akē has been photographed. This elusive bird’s burrow was found by a local bird dog named Slater.
The footage shows “the fluffy fledgling emerging from its high-elevation burrow on Mauna Loa about a month before the eruption began, an exciting first for Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park,” says HVNP spokesperson Jessica Ferracane.
The ‘akē‘akē burrow was sniffed out in September by Slater of Hawai‘i Detector Dogs. Slater was trained and handled by biologist Dr. Michelle Reynolds. Following Slater’s nose, biologist Charlotte Forbes Perry, with help from the HVNP-permitted team from the University of Hawai‘i Pacific Cooperative Unit, observed the chick before it left the burrow. After Slater discovered the ‘akē‘akē nest and three Hawaiian petrel nests, wildlife cameras were installed to monitor the burrows.
“Biologists in the park have known of the presence of ‘akē‘akē on Mauna Loa since the 1990s,” Forbes Perry explains. “In 2019, ‘akē‘akē burrow nesting calls were recorded. The lack of visual signs like guano at their nest sites make(s) them extremely hard for humans to locate.”
According to the American Bird Conservancy, ‘akē‘akē, also known as the band-rumped storm petrel (Oceanodroma castro), are small, even at maturity. Adults weigh about as much as a golf ball. The elusive birds are ash black with a wide white band on a squarish tail. They nest on islands, but spend their lives at sea. The global population is about 150,000, with an estimated 240 pairs known in Hawai‘i. Like ‘ua‘u (Hawaiian petrels), and other seabirds, ‘akē‘akē fly to breeding sites in darkness.
Slater and his handler Reynolds were also part of the team that in September also discovered a new ‘akē‘akē burrow at the
