DON'T IRRADIATE THE BIRDS!
In mid-October 2019, the Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project (MFBRP), in
cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the State of
Hawai’i, The Nature Conservancy, the American Bird Conservancy, Pacific
Bird Conservation, and San Diego Zoo Global, attached VHF radio
transmitters to the legs of 10 kiwikiu before releasing them into the
Nakula Natural Area Reserve, on the southern slope of Haleakalā volcano.
Kiwikiu, a species of honeycreepers found only on Maui, are critically
endangered. They are small, weighing less than an ounce. Fewer than 150
of these intelligent, long-lived little birds remain.
The
birds -- some captive-raised and some wild -- were released into the
forest between October 27 and October 30, 2019. By November 16, every
bird was dead except the three who had succeeded in removing or
disabling their transmitter. The details are shocking.
Seven
wild kiwikiu were captured from the Hanawī Natural Area Reserve and
transported to aviaries in the Nakula reserve on the morning of October
17 in preparation for release in the proposed new bird sanctuary. One of
the birds, number WILD9, received his transmitter on October 29. He had
been strong and healthy prior to that moment, but as soon as it was
attached, he hopped onto the ground and stayed still on the floor. Half
an hour later, he tucked his head under his wing. Bird Recovery staff
then removed the transmitter, but he did not recover. He continued to
sit quietly on his perch, and was found dead the next morning.
Another
wild bird, number WILD10, received her transmitter on October 26. She
attacked the harness holding it onto her ferociously, bit it apart, and
removed it. It was found on the ground on October 28. Later on October
28, the Bird Recovery team put a new transmitter on her. On October 29,
she was lethargic and not eating. On October 30, she was “fluffed and
inactive.” She was found dead on the morning of October 31.
The
other five wild-captured kiwikiu were released into the Nakula reserve
with their transmitters intact. WILD5 died on November 11. WILD8 died on
November 5. WILD11 died on November 16. WILD1 succeeded in removing his
transmitter the day after his release, and he was last observed, doing
well, on November 24. WILD7 removed his transmitter on November 8, and
he was last observed, doing well, on November 12.
Five
captive-bred kiwikiu were also part of the project. They had all been
raised in bird conservation breeding centers on Maui and Hawai’i, and
were between 5 and 18 years old. Two of these birds died during the
two-week preparation for release, although they had thrived for years in
the bird conservation centers. Bird number MP022 received his
transmitter on October 29. Like WILD9, he hopped onto the ground and
stayed on the floor after his transmitter was attached, but unlike WILD9
he rolled onto his side and kept on attacking the transmitter with his
beak until finally he got his mandible stuck in the harness. Staff
removed the transmitter and released him into the Nakula reserve without
it, but he did not recover and died on November 2. Bird number MP026
was released with his transmitter on October 29 and died on November 5.
Bird number MP023 was released with his transmitter on October 28, and
succeeded in removing his transmitter the following day after being
observed “moving on a direct path out of Nakula NAR.” Presumably he flew
as far away from his captors as he could. Bird number MP027 also
survived because he was not released with a transmitter. This bird had
had a transmitter attached in a previous trial on April 8, and
immediately lay on his back on the floor of his cage and did not move.
Seeing this, staff removed his transmitter after only a few minutes. On
October 23 they attached a transmitter to him again briefly but decided
not to include him in the experiment and returned him to the Maui
conservation center where he was still alive and well as of the date of
publication of the MFBRP report on March 15, 2021.
The
writers of the report attributed every kiwikiu death to malaria,
despite the facts, stated in the report, that malaria had never before
been found in birds in the conservation breeding centers or the Hanawī
reserve where all the birds came from; that malaria had never been known
to infect more than about 10 or 15 percent of any population of
honeycreepers; that malaria does not kill all birds it infects and
honeycreepers are known to develop resistance to it; that other
parasites were also found in the birds; and that the average time from
first symptoms to death for the birds in this project was “1-2 days”
which is not typical of malaria. Two “large, healthy male kiwikiu” died
within hours of their first signs of reduced activity. The authors of
the study wrote:
“[I]t
was not clear if these birds could have contracted the disease in
Nakula NAR as these birds developed symptoms more rapidly than is
typical and died more rapidly than has been reported for other
honeycreepers.”
They went on to speculate:
“The
necropsies found parasites in multiple organ systems indicating a
severe systemic infection that had moved out of the blood stream into
other tissues. This could be the result of increased replication of the
malaria parasite following some change in the immune system of the
birds, such as in response to environmental stress.”
The environmental stress that they did not consider was the radiation from the VHF transmitters that they attached to the birds.
A correspondent in Alberta wrote to me last year:
“Prior
to me being aware of the dangers I had a tracking collar for my beagle
as he was a little bit of an escape artist. Unfortunately after having
worn it for a while (3 months or so) with it on only while he was
outside he started to develop joint pains and was not walking right. The
vet said he had a common beagle issue of his spine starting to compress
and cause problems. Right around the same time I was learning of the
dangers of all these wireless devices and got rid of his tracker. He was
off pain killers and back to normal in under a month and the issue has
never returned.”
Nor
did the Bird Recovery team consider the radiation from the giant
antenna farm towering over the Nakula Natural Area Reserve atop Puʻu
ʻUlaʻula (Red Hill). There are 159 antennas on 20 telecommunication
towers on top of that hill blasting the Nakula reserve with cell phone,
internet, radio, television, government, police, military and other
signals. The Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputing (AMOS) facility
is there. The authors of the Bird Recovery report wondered why it is
that the wild kiwikiu choose to remain in the small 7,413-acre Hanawī
Natural Area Reserve on the windward slope of the volcano and do not
stray over the top to the leeward slope where they would be more
sheltered from the elements. It is because in the Hanawī reserve the
crest of the volcano above them blocks all the radiation from that
antenna farm and cell phones do not even work where they live.
Since
the failure of the relocation project, efforts to save the kiwikiu from
extinction have focused on releasing billions of bacteria-infected
mosquitoes onto Maui in a misguided attempt to save the birds by
eradicating avian malaria from the island. As of this writing, a lawsuit
against the mosquito project, filed by Hawai’i Unites, is being heard
by Hawai’i’s Environmental Court. Not only will importing billions of
mosquitoes, however altered, into the national park and nature reserves
of eastern Maui only make the situation worse for the birds; not only
could it backfire and further spread malaria instead of eradicating it;
but no solution is possible for this or any other species of rare bird
as long as we as a society continue in our denial about the radiation
disaster that we are inflicting on our planet from every direction.
In 2017, Mark Broomhall wrote a 38-page Report for the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization
that shines a bright light on why the kiwikiu have retreated to the
high elevations of the northern slope of Haleakalā volcano in Maui, and
what must be done to protect them. The following is from his summary of
his years of observation of the birds and wildlife on Mount Nardi in the
Nightcap National Park World Heritage Area in Australia. That mountain,
on which he lived for 40 years, has telecommunication towers on its
summit:
“It
wasn’t until the Analogue Era was drawing to a close, along with the
advent of digital wireless technology in the years 2002 to 2004, that I
began to notice a decline in insect diversity and population. This
period was at the back-end of a prolonged nationwide drought and there
was much talk of global warming.
“Initially,
I attributed the insect decline to these events. I later learnt of
‘mobile phone pulsed microwave technology’ and understood from press
reports that this was being installed on Mt. Nardi. This technology is
named universally by the industry, the press, and the public at large,
as ‘3G.’ With this knowledge, I began to suspect that perhaps something
else was happening on Mt. Nardi. At the same time, further additions
included Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) technology.
“In
the year 2009, enhanced 3G technology was installed and a further 150
pay television channels were added to the tower. Following these
additions, I witnessed the exodus of 27 bird species from Mt. Nardi
while simultaneously, insect volumes and species variety dropped
dramatically.
“In
late 2012 and early 2013, with the construction of a new tower in the
complex and the introduction of a 600,000-watt generator, the system was
upgraded to what became universally known as “4G.” Immediately after, I
witnessed the rapid exodus of a further 49 bird species. From this
time, all locally known bat species became scarce, 4 common species of
cicada almost disappeared, as well as the once enormous, varied
population of moths & butterfly species. Frogs and tadpole
populations were drastically reduced; the massive volumes and diverse
species of ant populations became uncommon to rare.”
Broomhall’s
observations are consistent with thousands of published reports in the
scientific literature, as well as a constant stream of informal reports
from my colleagues and subscribers that I have been receiving from all
over the world for decades -- from Spain, from Japan, from Norway, from
the Netherlands, from Greece, from everywhere.
The
essential difference between Mount Nardi and the kiwikiu’s current
refuge is that an antenna farm irradiates all of Mount Nardi whereas
cell phones do not even work in the Hanawī reserve. It is why the
kiwikiu have retreated there. If the birds are simply left alone and not
given radio transmitters, and if antennas for telecommunications,
radar, WiFi, and any other purpose are prohibited on the volcano and in
the nature reserves around it, as well as above it from drones as has
been experimented with elsewhere in Hawai’i, the birds will thrive. If
not, they will perish.
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