Hawaii Volcanoes National Park has reopened Puu Puai Overlook after a six-month closure so that an endangered Hawaiian goose family could raise its gosling, the park announced today.
The nene parents and their single gosling have moved on to their summer grounds.
The gosling was the first to be reared in the area in a decade and is the grand gosling of the last goose raised there 10 years ago, a park biologist said in a statement.
“This year’s gosling was the fifth generation of the same nene family I’ve monitored over the years,” said Kathleen Misajon, a wildlife biologist at the park, in the release. “After a 10-year hiatus, it is really exciting to see this female return to a favored family spot.”
During the closure, park workers replaced missing boards and added a fresh coat of paint to the deck at Puu Puai Overlook that offers vistas of Kilauea Iki crater and trail. Puu Puai is a cindercone that formed during an eruption at Kilauea Iki crater in 1959.
More than 2,500 nene live in the islands, but in 1952 the population dwindled to just 30 geese, the park said. Park officials began trying to save the species from extinction in the 1970s, and today more than 250 wild birds live in the park.
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