State officials have launched a project to study the pueo in an effort to better understand the owl’s ecology on Oahu and to develop standardized surveying methods and management practices.

Launched last month by the University of Hawaii and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, the one-year project seeks to survey the pueo’s population size, location, and nesting and foraging habitats on Oahu. The project will help officials to develop standardized methods for surveyors to determine whether there is a pueo population in a certain area, including on lands slated for development. The study will also help DLNR better manage the pueo population.

Afsheen Siddiqi, a DLNR wildlife biologist, said the project costs about $100,000, $75,000 of which is mitigation funding the department receives and about $20,000 to $25,000 from state funds, which includes equipment and personnel costs.

“We’re hoping that the information we gather from this study will inform our management,” she said.

The pueo, or Hawaiian owl, is an endemic subspecies listed by the state as endangered on Oahu, likely due to loss and degradation of habitat and predation. There are no population estimates or location data, and limited understanding of the owl’s ecology, according to officials.

Pueo mainly live in wet and dry forests, grasslands and shrub lands, and nest on the ground. The pueo, believed to have colonized the Hawaiian Islands after the Polynesians arrived, is protected under state and federal laws that prohibit anyone from hunting, shooting, wounding, capturing or trapping the owl.

They are sometimes mistaken for the common barn owl, which nests in trees and was brought to Hawaii in the 1950s for rodent control. Barn owls are lighter in coloring and have a heart-shaped face. Pueo, on the other hand, are mainly active during the day and have a round face.

Melissa Price, an assistant professor at UH who is the project’s principal investigator, said it can be difficult to determine the pueo’s population size because it is a rare species. She said research and surveys show that the pueo can be difficult to detect because it can sit still all day on the ground or in a tree. Price, who has taught courses in wildlife ecology and management and natural resources, said this shows that surveyors need to spend at least a few hours at a time in the field to spot pueo.

Officials are also asking the public to submit information on pueo sightings. The public can give a description of where pueo are spotted or pinpoint the location on a map. Price said a postdoctoral researcher follows up on submissions and surveys the location. She said they have so far received about 20 to 30 submissions. Price and the researcher are undertaking the majority of the project work.

“Everyone loves pueo,” Price said. “With us being two people, we can’t be at all places at all times. We know for a lot of people the pueo is important. And they pay attention to them. The more people reporting, the better.”

Pueo protection and research was the subject of a community meeting in August with residents and state and federal officials at the University of Hawaii at West Oahu. The school’s mascot is the pueo.

At that meeting some residents maintained that they had spotted pueo on Ewa Plain lands slated for development. They expressed frustration that the owl has received scant attention and emphasized the cultural significance of the pueo, considered sacred to many Hawaiians and known as an aumakua, or ancestral guardian believed to protect people from harm and even death.

Siddiqi said the state had been developing a pueo project for a few years and had secured funding but encountered staffing shortages. She said the state does not have enough money to dedicate funding to all species.

Price added that they have been coordinating their efforts with cultural practitioners and that the team is hoping to secure additional funding to extend the study for more than a year.

For more information or to report a pueo sighting, visit pueoproject.com.