Rapanui Fowl: Ponape Thread

sjango

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May 2, 2017
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Ponape are a type of chicken under the category of Rapanui Fowl and are from the Micronesian island of Pohnpei. These unique chickens arrived to the island on the vessels of ancient Polynesian seafarers. Foundry stock from Pohnpei and other islands were brought back to Europe during the colonial period and have found their way into some of the genepools still maintained today, one of the examples being Dutch Bantam breeds.

As a landrace fowl there is a fair amount of diversity within the genepool of Ponape. They are typically the size of a larger bantam and most often sport beard-muffs, some individuals will also have feathered feet. The plumage of roosters is most often silver, gold, or red birchen but can also be variations of the duckwing pattern. Shank color ranges within nearly all known colors and hens can have spurs. Comb type varies and is most often a small single comb or a pea comb. Some Ponape have melanized faces and can even display fibromelanosis, though I have not had any fibro individuals in my lines. The hens lay small to medium sized eggs that are tinted to almost white.

Ponape are also very intelligent and are not prone to disease and do not make easy prey for predators. They are good fliers, the males are great protectors, and the females are fantastic mothers. These fowl descend in part from Ayam Bekisars and therefor have more green junglefowl genetics than many other lineages. Their plumage can be very violaceous and display more purple-blue iridescence as a result.

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Silver Birchen Ponape Male
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Red Birchen Male displaying vivid Iridescence
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Black birchen hens
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Silver duckwing hens
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Red duckwing hens
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Hen displaying violaceous iridescence
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Ponape eggs
 

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I live in Hawaii and the wild chickens here vary greatly, however I am SURE there are some of this breed running around!đź’•
My daughter and I love to visit the various colonies and I will try to get some photos.
 
I live in Hawaii and the wild chickens here vary greatly, however I am SURE there are some of this breed running around!đź’•
My daughter and I love to visit the various colonies and I will try to get some photos.

The Hawaiian Islands undoubtedly had landraces of chickens unique to them before extensive contact. Today human settlements have brought foreign chicken genetics into these gene pools and clouded them rather extensively. I am not familiar with the traditional landraces or gene pools in Hawaii but this information very well may live on within native Hawaiian communities. I would love to see a project that collaborates with local elders and works to bring back some of the heritage morphs if there isn't one going on already. And certainly the chickens brought to the Hawaiian islands ages ago would likely be relatively closely related to other island breeds like the Ponape! :)

Photos are always welcome and a pleasure. I would guess there is a lot of conservation work to be done within the islands and the first step would be extensive field research and establishment of traits that align with cultural phenotypes. Photos are certainly a part of that process!
 
These days they could do genome sequencing to try to sort it out, but it would be a huge project. I've been looking for old photos that show island chickens but haven't found a thing. All the landrace birds were probably contaminated during the industrial chicken boom in the early 1900's.
 
These days they could do genome sequencing to try to sort it out, but it would be a huge project. I've been looking for old photos that show island chickens but haven't found a thing. All the landrace birds were probably contaminated during the industrial chicken boom in the early 1900's.
From my minimal amount of research regarding precolonial Hawaiian chickens I haven't found much at all. For several of the Rapanui Fowl there are records and pelts from precolonial specimen but I haven't seen anything of the sort from Hawaii. Genetic sequencing is definitely the way to go as they have found rather old fossilized chicken remains on the islands. All that would need to be done is a comparison of genes to present day specimen. There very well may still be some genetic reservoirs hiding in the woods.
 
I live in Hawaii and the wild chickens here vary greatly, however I am SURE there are some of this breed running around!đź’•
My daughter and I love to visit the various colonies and I will try to get some photos.
Not the greatest pictures it was too bright. And he didn’t want me anywhere near him
 

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The Hawaiian Islands undoubtedly had landraces of chickens unique to them before extensive contact. Today human settlements have brought foreign chicken genetics into these gene pools and clouded them rather extensively. I am not familiar with the traditional landraces or gene pools in Hawaii but this information very well may live on within native Hawaiian communities. I would love to see a project that collaborates with local elders and works to bring back some of the heritage morphs if there isn't one going on already. And certainly the chickens brought to the Hawaiian islands ages ago would likely be relatively closely related to other island breeds like the Ponape! :)

Photos are always welcome and a pleasure. I would guess there is a lot of conservation work to be done within the islands and the first step would be extensive field research and establishment of traits that align with cultural phenotypes. Photos are certainly a part of that process!
 

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Wow, terrific drawing! Thank you very much. You can tell the depicted bird is a RJF by the tuft of white down at the base of the tail. I wonder what the date of the drawing is? It's not like the artist was there or anything, but it may predate the present day voyager reenactments.

There was this from a few months back.
https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/podcast/manu-minute/2021-09-16/manu-minute-a-good-moa-to-you
I think the lady missed the mark because she never mentions hens, white ear lobes or eclipse plumage.
 
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The artist of the drawing is Herb Kawainui Kane who worked in the mid to late 1900's. I just looked him up. I suppose there wouldn't be any drawings or glyphs from before contact, but I imagine there may be some oral history regarding chickens
 
Wow, terrific drawing! Thank you very much. You can tell the depicted bird is a RJF by the tuft of white down at the base of the tail. I wonder what the date of the drawing is? It's not like the artist was there or anything, but it may predate the present day voyager reenactments.

There was this from a few months back.
https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/podcast/manu-minute/2021-09-16/manu-minute-a-good-moa-to-you
I think the lady missed the mark because she never mentions hens, white ear lobes or eclipse plumage.
Great Podcast too! The old genetics certainly still seem to be present. There a certain characteristics even in the male's crows that could be selected for. All that is needed now is some dedicated stewards to recreate the old lineage to the best of their ability. I would love to be involved with a project like that. My passion is heritage landrace breeds with a particular focus on island landraces linked to ancient Polynesian voyages. Maybe someday I'll have to luxury of time to get involved.
 

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