Let's Dot the I's and Cross the T's of Life
In 1987, in the deep forest of Hawaii, a male bird of the Kaua'i 'ō'ō species (a honeyeater) was observed singing( Listen ). It was a mating call designed by nature for courtship, a duet for male and female. The male pauses, waiting for a female to respond. But that was the year the species went extinct. His song is one of the finest voices I have ever heard. This recording is known as The Last Call, the haunting and unanswered call of wanting. He did everything right. He sang at the right time, in the right place, in the right way. He kept up the ritual his species had perfected over thousands of years. The world around him had simply changed . The chaos in the area started with deforestation (of course we started it), followed by Hurricane Iwa in 1982, invasive predators, and mosquito-borne diseases that reduced the native bird population. There was a last known pair of the species, but the female disappeared after the hurricane. The last male desperately looked for a com...
