The Hawaiian Goose or Nēnē, Branta sandvicensis, is a species of goose endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. The official bird of the State of Hawaiʻi, the Nēnē is exclusively found in the wild on the islands of Maui, Kauaʻi and Hawaiʻi. The Nēnē gets its Hawaiian name from its soft call.
The Nēnē evolved from the Canada Goose (Branta canadensis), which most likely migrated to the Hawaiian islands 500,000 years ago, shortly after the island of Hawaiʻi...
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The Hawaiian Goose or Nēnē, Branta sandvicensis, is a species of goose endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. The official bird of the State of Hawaiʻi, the Nēnē is exclusively found in the wild on the islands of Maui, Kauaʻi and Hawaiʻi. The Nēnē gets its Hawaiian name from its soft call.
The Nēnē evolved from the Canada Goose (Branta canadensis), which most likely migrated to the Hawaiian islands 500,000 years ago, shortly after the island of Hawaiʻi was formed. This ancestor is the progenitor the Nēnē as well as the prehistoric Giant Hawaiʻi Goose and Nēnē-nui (Branta hylobadistes). The Nēnē-nui was larger than the Nēnē, varied from flightless to flighted depending on the individual, and inhabited the island of Maui. Similar fossil geese found on Oʻahu and Kauaʻi may be of the same species. The Giant Hawaiʻi Goose was restricted to the island of Hawaiʻi and measured 1.2 metres (3.9 ft) in length with a mass of 8.6 kilograms (19 lb), making it more than four times larger than the Nēnē. It...
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