Kailua Village Artists

Otherwise known as the Hawaiian Goose or in Latin, Branta Sandwicensis, the nēnē is endemic to Hawaii. It likely shares a common ancestor the migratory Canada Goose, but has been isolated in the Hawaiian Islands for long enough to have evolved into its own species with slightly longer legs and shorter interdigital webs.

The nēnē population diminished to fewer than 30 individuals in the 1950s. Through state and federal conservation programs and protections afforded by the Endangered Species Act, the Current population around 3,800. It is still the rarest goose in the entire world.

Bonded pairs mate for life. They nest on the ground. Goslings are born precocious (able to feed themselves), but stay with their parents for about a year.

Nene can live into their 30s and 40s.  Most nene sport a plastic colored leg band with 3 alphabet or numbers. If you are able to read these numbers with a binoculars or zoom lens (law says to maintain 60 feet of distance), you can look up when the bird was banded and previously sighted at nene.org.

Nene is the Hawaii State Bird.

So cute! Thanks to one of Tom Carey's underwater photographs, I recently got to study one up close. Close enough to notice the elastic texture of its skin (yes, these are fish without scales) that, when it feels threatened, allows it to fill the space under its skin with water and inflate to something ball shaped. Some pufferfish species even have spines earning them the moniker "porcupine fish." And if being inflated and spiny isn't enough of a deterrent to predators, pufferfish secrete a toxin -tetrodotoxin -  causes paralysis and death.

Indeed, although a relatively common fish in Hawaiian waters, it is illegal to serve pufferfish in restaurants because of its lethal nature. Called fugu, pufferfish is a culinary delicacy in Japan, though both sellers and chefs require special licenses to handle and prepare the fish. Properly prepared, fugu reportedly has a mild flavor and  produces tingly and slightly numbing sensations of the lips and mouth.

It seems the moral of the story is to look, admire, photograph, but respect the pufferfish - don't touch and don't eat!