About Nene O Moloka`i
 

Nene O Moloka`i is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation created to establish and preserve wild nene on the island of Moloka`i, while emphasizing education through community involvement. Founded in 1994, Nene O Moloka`i is the first non-profit in Hawai`i authorized by the State of Hawai`i, Division of Forestry & Wildlife to breed and release nene. Nene O Moloka`i publishes the Nene News©, a quarterly newsletter about nene and other species of endangered Hawaiian waterfowl. Student involvement includes the Plant Some Poop Project to learn what nene are eating and how plant species can be spread, and the Moloka`i Corridor Project restoring degraded habitats and enhancing existing ecosystems for wildlife. Keep Them Wild! Do Not Feed The Nene! is a campaign gaining state-wide momentum through public participation. Educational programs and operating expenses for Nene O Moloka`i are made possible through private donations, and foundation and corporate grants.

About The Nene Project

A ten acre predator-proof self-sustaining lowland habitat will be the cornerstone of a proposed multi-phase nene reserve on the East End of Moloka`i, with facilities for breeding, release, research, and public education about Hawai`i’s treasured nene. The diet of the nene at the facility will be as close as possible to the diet of nene in the wild. Feather-clipped breeders will roam freely within the confines of the facility, choose mates, create territories, and naturally incubate and hatch goslings. The goslings will be raised with their parents under semi-wild conditions until they choose to fly into the wild. The highly social behavior of nene in the wild allows goslings to stay with their parents over their entire first year, or more, of life. It is thought that this interaction and the shared foraging experience with adult geese may be essential for their learning to survive in the wild. It is expected that the sea level location of this project will increase gosling survival, and assist this project to establish a self-sustaining and reproducing wild flock of 250 nene on Moloka`i by the end of the initial ten year project period.