Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 12, Number 3, 1 March 1995 — Ke ao nani [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Ke ao nani

Naturally Hawanan

by Patrick Ching artist/environmentalist

The mōli return

The Laysan Albatross, named after Laysan Island in the northwest Hawaiian ehain, is known to Hawaiians as mōli. It is a large, white-bodied bird with dark wings that span

seven feet from tip to tip. It sports a large bill, whieh is hooked at the end, and its face looks as though airbrushed with makeup. These birds appear awkward on land, waddling about in a peculiar way (such behavior is the reason these birds are nicknamed "gooney birds"). In the air, however, the mōll are the most graceful of flyers as they glide effortlessly over the

ocean's surface, occasionally banking and swooping in figure-eight patterns. Albatrosses may remain at sea for months, or, in the case of juvenile birds, years at a time. November through December is when the mōll return to the Hawaiian Islands to begin their breeding cycles. They congregate in groups of two or more and exhibit a series of elaborate courtship rituals including bobbing up and down, rapidly shaking their beaks from side to side and tucking their heads beneath their wings. These gestures are accompanied by a variety of whistling, elapping and groaning sounds. Albatrosses may live to be 50 years or

older. A pair usually mates for life and may raise a single ehiek eaeh year. When learning to fly in June through August, the young albatrosses often stop to rest on the ocean's sur-

| face, where many of them are eaten by sharks. This occurs frequently around the Northwest Hawaiian Islands where thousands of young mōll fledge eaeh year. By September nearly all of the albatrosses have left Hawai'i to fish the waters of the North Pacific. Until 1976 the mōlī were not known to land on the main I Hawaiian Islands. In the winter

of that year wildlife employees and volunteers coaxed a few birds into landing on the grounds of the Kllauea Point Wildlife Refuge on Kaua'i. The birds were drawn to wooden decoys and recording of albatross mating calls. In 1978 the first ehiek successfully fledged from Kllauea Point. Since 1 993 a similar project has been underway on Kāohikaipu island (located next to Mānana or "Rabbit Island" off O'ahu). Eaeh year increasing numbers of mōlī are landing there and hopefully will be nesting soon. Albatrosses ean now be found on Ni'ihau, Kaua'i and Ka'ena Point on O'ahu.