The Hawai'i State Bird - the Ne'ne... here's a pair of them crusing around at the 9,000 foot level of Haleakala on the island of Maui. It was pure chance that we stumbled upon them, and in a true Sac D moment, this shot was taken from a moving vehicle!

In 1778 when Captain Cooke arrived in the Hawaiian islands, there were probably 25,000 Nene. By the 1950's there were only 30 geese left. Like many island animals, the Nene could not stand up to the introduced animals that colonists brought with them and the changes they made to the environment for agriculture. Today there are about 500 wild Nene and successful captive breeding programs in the United States and Europe with fledglings introduced every year.