Birds, not Mosquitoes, a collaborative, landscape-scale strategy to prevent the extinction of Hawaiian endangered forest birds

The Hawaiian archipelago once had more than 50 species of endemic honeycreepers. Only 17 species remain; most could disappear in the next decade as invasive alien mosquitoes continue to spread avian malaria, a trend exacerbated by a warming climate. The 2016 WCC called for an expedited exploration of “all appropriate techniques” to control these mosquitoes. This presentation will describe the proposed use of Wolbachia bacteria as a “mosquito birth control” to prevent the extinction of these Hawaiian birds.