HI HCR69

Requests the Department of Land and Natural Resources to petition the U.S. Secretary of the Interior and Fish and Wildlife Service to list the pueo (Hawaiian short-eared owl) as a threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act.

The pueo population on Oahu has declined from great numbers in the late 1800s to an estimated 807 individual birds according to The Pueo Project study.

Pueo are vulnerable to predation by feral cats, dogs, rats, and mongooses, and face habitat loss; they nest on the ground and lay three to six eggs over a few months.

Current state law protections under chapter 13-124, Hawaii Administrative Rules, list the pueo as endangered on Oahu but are limited to prohibiting export, possession, sale, hunting, and nest disturbance.

Federal protection under the Endangered Species Act would provide stronger protections to help the pueo population increase to healthy and sustainable levels.