Conservationists in Samoa have called for stringent monitoring of current hunting bans on the endangered manumea or tooth-billed pigeon, if the remaining population are to be saved.
This follows the recent sightings of the Samoan native bird on the eastern rainforests at Uafato village on Upolu island by teams of conservationists from the Samoa Conservation Society and the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Management [BIOPAMA] programme run by the International Union for Conservation for Nature.
Samoa Observer reports Sefuiva Moeumu Uili, of the Samoa Conservation Society’s Manumea Project in partnership with Birdlife International, said she was leading one of two teams when they came across the endangered birds.
“Our records of the bird calling and sighted around the same time of the day tells us there could be two or more [manumea] individuals out there.”
The SCS field survey officer said an adult manumea was also spotted in the Uafato forest by the second team during the research visit.
“Vocal calls were both heard on the west and south sides by both teams and were interestingly heard around the same time of the day from 6am and again at around 11am.”
She said their findings indicate that conservation action is a priority and there is a need to do something now and do it properly to save the remaining population in the wild.
Sefuiva added that the enforcement of the ban on the hunting of pigeons in the wild, in particular in the forests where they are being reported from like Uafato, will go a long way to ensuring the endangered National Bird of Samoa are saved.
“There could be two or more manumea in the Uafato forest today, but we don’t know if those two will be the last two that we have.”
“Pigeons move around habitats where it is safe to survive and where there is food to help it survive.”
“Uafato confirmed its ban on hunting pigeons in the wild and we can only ask for everyone’s support to respect that for the sake of protecting our critically endangered manumea, highly at risk of extinction,” she said.
In March this year Falealupo villagers in Savai’i have also reported the sighting of the endangered bird species, giving conservationists hope that the manumea has a permanent home on the big island.
