Rising Tide Images
Bow Wake
An approaching female duck seems inquisitive about my presence and churns up a bow wake in the lagoon water. The non-migratory endemic Hawaiian duck, koloa maoli (Anas wyvilliana), was once abundant enough to be a local food source and sold to visiting whaling ships. The koloa maoli is now considered endangered due to habitat loss and fertile hybridization with escaped, released, and vagrant mallards (Anas platyrhynchos). This koloa is very likely ancestral hybridized as genetic studies indicate only a few remaining koloa maoli exist, mostly on the island of Kauai.
Bow Wake
An approaching female duck seems inquisitive about my presence and churns up a bow wake in the lagoon water. The non-migratory endemic Hawaiian duck, koloa maoli (Anas wyvilliana), was once abundant enough to be a local food source and sold to visiting whaling ships. The koloa maoli is now considered endangered due to habitat loss and fertile hybridization with escaped, released, and vagrant mallards (Anas platyrhynchos). This koloa is very likely ancestral hybridized as genetic studies indicate only a few remaining koloa maoli exist, mostly on the island of Kauai.