Nene geese nest on Oahu for first time since 1700s

Endangered Hawaiian geese have been spotted in the wild on Oahu for the first time in centuries, a federal agency said Monday.

A pair of nene nested and successfully hatched three goslings at a national wildlife refuge near Kahuku on the North Shore, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said.

Authorities have been flying nene from Kauai, where the population has been growing rapidly, to Maui and the Big Island by helicopter and Coast Guard plane to establish populations on those islands.

The nene pair at the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge near Kahuku found their own way to Oahu and weren’t transported by humans, said Ken Foote, a spokesman for the agency. He declined to release further information, saying the agency will talk to media about the geese on Wednesday.

Nene — the official state bird — is an endangered species found only in the Hawaiian Islands. There are more than 2,000 remaining in the wild.

Scientists believe the birds are descendants of Canada geese that flew here nearly 1 million years ago.

They lost habitat to agriculture after Polynesians arrived in Hawaii about 1,000 years ago. When the first Europeans landed in 1778, the birds were only known to live on the Big Island. Fossilized remains of nene, however, have been found on Oahu and most of the other main Hawaiian Islands.

Unrestricted hunting after Europeans arrived took out even more of the birds. By 1952, there were just 30 left.

Steve Hess, a U.S. Geological Survey wildlife biologist, said the nene fly long distances — they’re known to cross the Big Island in a day — so it’s not surprising that they would fly to Oahu.

“But the fact that they would stop and raise youngsters over there — that’s pretty remarkable,” said Hess, who has studied nene but is not involved with the Oahu geese.