An unusual preservation project is continuing this fall in French Polynesia. Scientists are hoping to save a rare bird from extinction.
The Fatu Hiva monarch, a type of flycatcher, is endemic to the island for which it is named in the Marquesas Islands. It is French Polynesia's most endangered bird and one of the world's rarest species.
Radio New Zealand reported that there are now only 19 monarchs in existence and only five breeding pairs.
Those numbers have been decimated over decades by ship rats that arrived on Fatu Hiva in the 1980s, feral cats, and now also by avian malaria.
The project to save the bird is a joint effort between the Auckland Zoo and the Polynesian Ornithological Society.
Society biologists are monitoring eggs laid in nests in a densely forested valley.
The eggs are being collected for incubating, hatching — and if all goes well — raising chicks in new facilities designed by zoo staff.
If successfully raised, the fledglings will be released into a predator and mosquito-proof aviary.
The emergency project is attempting to establish a breeding program on Fatu Hiva Island, 600 miles northeast of Tahiti. This is the first time it has been attempted with a monarch species.
