But for now, no more releases are planned. People forget the problem s out there, not in here, says Lieberman. We re doing our piece, but this is definitely not the answer. What we re doing is basically just a bank account in the meantime. A few years ago the center was urged to gather up the last po ouli, a species that now lives only high on the slopes of Maui s Haleakala Crater.
Studies suggest that only two or three of the birds remain.
Some conservationists argue that because captive breeding worked for California condors, the technique could also rescue this rarest of honeycreepers. But Lieberman says that s not a valid comparison. You couldn t kill a condor with a shovel well, maybe with a good hit, but even then probably not. A captured songbird may thrash itself to death before it reaches the center or never acclimate to captivity. Scientists know the po ouli eats snails, but little else.