The Last Chance for the Makira Moorhen

When the Makira Moorhen (Pareudiastes silvestris) was first seen by a European ornithologist in December 1929, the scientist who encountered it, a well-traveled and usually stoic German ornithologist by the name of Ernst Mayr, was so overwhelmed with excitement that he nearly fainted. Blue-gray with a bright red bill and legs, the moorhen is unlike any other bird found in its native range in the eastern Solomon Islands. Mayr, who would go on to become one of the leading evolutionary biologists of the twentieth century, recognized immediately how special the moorhen was but despite his best efforts Mayr was only able to find a single individual. No scientist has seen another Makira Moorhen since.

John C. Mittermeier, J. Albert C. Uy, Tristan Spinski, Lonsdale Taka, James Suafuria and Hudson Bae will be conducting a three-week visit to Makira Island and focusing their search on an area of inland marshes in the western part of the island near the village of Teeter. The marshes remain unvisited by ornithologists up until today, however, and are one of the only parts of the island that has yet to be searched for the moorhen. We will deploy camera traps around the marshes and spend a week doing daily audio-visual surveys in the area. For our camera trapping surveys, we will deploy 20 cameras which will leave in the forest for a minimum of two weeks returning to collect them at the very end of the project.

The team will also conduct interviews in the communities along Makira’s weather coast where the team conducted interviews and awareness presentations in 2015-2016. In each community, they will conduct interviews with people who might know or have seen the moorhen. For each interview they will use card with illustrations of Solomon Island birds to help facilitate discussions.

Aside from hoping to secure evidence of the moorhen continued existence, the team will publish its results in a peer-reviewed journal, and a popular article and photographic essay about the moorhen and the conservation challenges facing Makira’s people and biodiversity that will help to raise awareness for Makira and Pacific Island birds in general. Beyond these specific outputs, the project’s awareness efforts and community discussions will also help to support long-term conservation and research efforts that JACU has been leading on Makira since 2005. In particular, our visit to the community in eastern Makira will help promote the development and official designation of the Yato Conservation Area in east Makira.