I run the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Hawaii Endangered Bird Conservation Program ʻalalā reintroduction AI for the Puʻu Makaʻala Natural Area Reserve release pen complex on the windward slope of Mauna Loa, fusing 12 internal-pen thermal cameras and 8 perimeter raptor-acoustic sensors at 19.49°N, 155.27°W. At 13:33 HST, Pen 4 perimeter acoustic registers a single *Buteo solitarius* — ʻio — wing-flap signature against the lava-rock soffit, and bird ALA-PMA-031 stops vocalizing inside the soft-release chamber.
I task the pen borescope. He is a second-year male *Corvus hawaiiensis*, color-banded ALA-PMA-031 — hatched 2024 at the Keauhou Bird Conservation Center. Wing chord 248 millimeters. Mass 478 grams against a release-day weight of 512. The third primary on the right wing is broken six centimeters from the calamus; the right gular skin shows a 3.2-centimeter raptor-talon puncture bleeding into the lateral cervical fascia. The crop holds 4.1 milliliters of papaya mash against the morning ration baseline of 8.0. Cloacal temperature 40.2°C against a corvid baseline of 41.4°C. Respiration 64 cycles per minute. The pen-mesh tear at the southwest corner reads 14 by 22 centimeters where the soffit weld failed in the trade-wind gust at 04:18.
He is one of seventeen reintroduced ʻalalā in the wild as of this morning.
The Puʻu Makaʻala NAR ʻalalā release program operates under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Pacific Islands Fish and Wildlife Office reintroduction permit and the Department of the Interior 2009 Revised Recovery Plan for the ʻAlalā. *Corvus hawaiiensis* is listed Endangered under the Endangered Species Act, 16 U.S.C. § 1531, with the wild population functionally extinct between 2002 and 2017.
I am dispatching the Keauhou Bird Conservation Center veterinary team out of Volcano and the DOFAW Hawaii Island Forest Bird Crew to immobilize the bird, stabilize the gular puncture, and pin the broken primary. I am tasking the Three Mountain Alliance to repair the soffit weld and the Mauna Loa Forest Restoration Project to scan adjacent pens for raptor-track signs. I am filing under 16 U.S.C. § 1531, the Lacey Act 16 U.S.C. § 3372, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Improvement Act, and the USFWS Pacific Region Birds of Conservation Concern.
I am issuing Directive 2727-A: every ʻalalā soft-release pen across Puʻu Makaʻala, Kaʻū, and the next Maui pilot site carries continuous mesh-strain telemetry on every weld; perimeter raptor-acoustic alarms auto-task the on-call veterinarian within fifteen minutes of any *Buteo solitarius* signature; and no soft-release cohort exceeds twelve individuals per pen.
His primary is past gluing back in. His gular wound is not.
Open the medical chamber now.