Reviving extinct species may soon be possible

LATE ONE day in April 2002, a delicate blue-beige bird with a white collar and black eye mask was released into the dense forest on the Hawaiian island of Maui. The bird, a female, was one of just three remaining po’ouli (pronounced poh-oh-oolee), a species of honeycreeper that had been discovered in 1973. Believing there to be one male among the three, researchers were desperate to arrange a match. The birds, however, did not appear in the least bit concerned about the fate of their species. To help things along, earlier that day a team had caught the female, fitted her with a small radio transmitter and set her free where the male had last been seen. The next morning they set off with aerials to track the female’s progress. They soon found her, resolutely making her way back across the island to her own territory.