Dogs taken illegally into the Ka'ena Point Natural Area Reserve have killed 26 wedge-tailed shearwater chicks in the past month, and both state and federal wildlife officials are on high alert as the Laysan albatross nesting season begins.

"It's such a tragedy. Albatrosses can live 50 years, they're on the ground during nesting season for six months, and it can take a dog only 3 seconds to kill one," said University of Hawai'i zoology professor Sheila Conant, a dog trainer.

Conant said she was part of a group that visited the westernmost point of O'ahu during mid-November and found evidence of carnage.

"We found, I think, around 20 dead birds that we believe were killed by dogs, and were surrounded by dog tracks," she said.

During the past several weeks, wildlife authorities have received reports of hikers allowing dogs to run free in the reserve, despite many warning signs.

"We have five recent reports that involve shepherds, Labradors and Rhodesian ridgebacks spotted off the trail," said Lindsay Young, a University of Hawai'i doctoral candidate in zoology who studies albatrosses. "Dogs aren't allowed in the reserve at all, but we basically see people in there daily with them."

She said dogs have been associated with the deaths of 26 shearwaters, mostly chicks, in the past month.

Young said there are signs indicating what kind of predator killed the birds. Dogs tend to shake and kill birds, then drop them. Cats will tear the carcasses apart. Mongoose will drag the bodies away from the kill site.

State Department of Land and Natural Resources director Peter Young, unrelated to Lindsay Young, said he hopes to establish a department position at Ka'ena Point to provide interpretation, give directions to visitors and enforce the rules when necessary.

"This is a place we're concerned about. People need to remember that they're not in their backyard out there. It's a sensitive place," he said.

Both shearwaters and albatrosses are protected under federal law and international treaty, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which provides penalties of up to $15,000 and six months in jail for harassing or killing migratory birds, said Keith Swindle, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service special agent. Recent fines for such offenses have ranged from about $200 to $2,000, he said.

"These birds, the reason they are believed to breed on islands is that there are no natural ground predators. They essentially do not defend themselves at all, so they're really, really vulnerable.

"Dogs basically go on a killing spree. We've had instances in which a dog will kill a dozen birds in an afternoon."

Conant said even extremely well-trained dogs will go after birds sitting on the ground. Even a normally leashed dog needs to be out of its owner's control for only a moment to kill a bird, she said.

Shearwaters nest in burrows, and at the end of the breeding season, the chicks will clamber out and sit in the open until they are old enough to fly.

Albatrosses — among the largest of birds — nest on the ground, and the chicks sit on the ground for months. The albatross nesting season starts about now and will continue through about June, when the surviving fledglings will fly to sea.

There are only about 50 pairs of Laysan albatross at Ka'ena, Lindsay Young said. The first showed up in 1991. Dogs killed all the chicks through the late 1990s, until fencing and control of feral animals helped provide some protection. During the past three years, Laysan albatrosses have built 97 nests, hatched 66 eggs, and seen 51 chicks survive to fledge or survive to be able to fly.

Swindle said dogs also can harass Hawaiian monk seals that haul out on the Ka'ena coastline.

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