Democracy Dies in Darkness

This Maui center houses some of the world’s rarest birds. Staff saved it from the flames.

The Maui Bird Conservation Center houses critically endangered Hawaiian birds found nowhere else on Earth, including some currently extinct in the wild

By
August 11, 2023 at 10:47 a.m. EDT
Security camera footage showed Maui Bird Conservation Center researchers fighting approaching wildfires to save endangered birds on Aug. 8. (Video: San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance)
3 min

The wildfires raging on Maui came to the doorstep of an endangered bird center, with staff rushing to extinguish flames before they crept to aviaries housing some of the rarest birds in the world.

Early Tuesday morning, Jennifer Pribble, a wildlife care supervisor at the bird sanctuary, and a neighbor saw smoke billowing across the road from the bird center.