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| | Hawaii's Forest Birds Sing the Blues - National Zoo| FONZ (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03) |
 | | Hawaii's endemic birds have been the most visible sentinels of the sinking ark. Their detectability--distinctive calls, songs, and plumage--renders them extremely good environmental indicators, and the story of their struggle illustrates the ongoing fight to save Hawaii's remaining endemic species. |
 | | No mammals patrolled the ground (Hawaii's only native land mammal is a bat), and, with the need to fly gone, many of the castaway bird species, such as endemic ducks, ibis, and rails, lost their powers of flight. |
 | | The recently expanded (by about 16,000 acres) federal property on the island of Hawaii spans more than 32,000 acres, most of which is rainforest and higher-elevation pasture created years ago by cattle, which ate the forest understory, compacted the soil, and scraped off tree bark until the trees had fallen and died. |
| nationalzoo.si.edu /Publications/ZooGoer/1995/1/hawaiisforestbirds.cfm (3610 words) |
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