The Pacific Pigeon (lupe), Samoa's royal bird

The lupe, or Pacific Pigeon, is the king of Samoa's birds and in many ways it is the most culturally important bird in our islands. It is our largest forest bird and is the only one able to feed on, and spread, the large seeds of some of our most important rainforest trees. Its cultural significance is revealed by the many Samoan proverbs that relate to the lupe and the art of lupe-hunting. The importance of lupe is also shown by the amazing tia seulupe (star-mounds) which are massive stone platforms built by the ancient Samoans, which served at least partly as pigeon-trapping sites.

Used with permission from Dick Watling from “Birds of Fiji, Tonga and Samoa” and “Birds of Fiji and Western Polynesia” (Pacificbirds.com).

The lupe is a member of a group of birds called the imperial pigeons because of their large size and dignified appearance. Most imperial pigeons live in the islands of the Pacific, although a few reach the mainland of Asia and one occurs in Australia. These birds are closely related to the much smaller fruit-doves, like the manutagi (Purple-capped Fruit Dove) but are only distantly related to the common pigeon that waddles around the cities of the world. The lupe is found from the islands north of New Guinea east through Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Niue, and the Cook Islands. Interestingly, throughout most of this wide range, it is usually found on small islands and atolls, not on large 'high islands'. This is most striking in Fiji, where lupe are found on the small islands of the Lau group, but not on the large islands of Vanua Levu, Viti Levu or Taveuni. A closely related imperial pigeon replaces the lupe on those high islands.

Lupe are a common sight in forested areas of American Samoa, and can be seen flying high over villages or bays. They even visit moso'oi and poumuli trees near houses, if those houses are not too far from forests. Even when not seen, they announce their presence with easy to hear calls: a low, rising and falling moo like that of a cow, or a loud, rolling prrrrrhhh. One of the benefits of American Samoa's ban on hunting lupe (and pe'a) after the hurricanes in the early 1990s is that they become less scared of people, giving us better chances to see and appreciate these spectacular birds.

Their nests are hard to find. During all our time in the forests, we have seen only a few. We have also seen evidence of nest-building (for example, lupe flying with sticks in their bills) on several other occasions. All these observations were during the months of January through September. Lupe nests are open platforms of twigs, with no lining. They are usually placed in dense clumps of leaves high up in trees, making them very hard to see.

These birds lay only a single white egg. Both parents help incubate the egg and feed the chick once it hatches. All members of the pigeon family have an amazing ability: they feed their young a sort of “milk”. This is a nutritious liquid that is a combination of digested food and other substances secreted by special glands in the bird's digestive system. Both male and female pigeons make this milk, so both parents take an equal part in feeding the young. Information from related species of imperial pigeons suggests that lupe eggs take about 27 days to hatch, and that the young spend about 28 days in the nest after hatching. It seems like lupe could nest more than once a year, but most young birds are seen from July to August, so most nesting probably occurs at just one time each year.

Lupe eat many different rainforest foods, and not just fruits from favored trees like atone, ma'ali, malili, mamala, mamalava, moso'oi or aoa. They also eat fruits from vines such as mamalupe (pigeon's mouthful) and low shrubs like toitoi. Lupe eat leaves from many different trees, including au'auli, a'amati'e and ifi, although in almost all cases they like the young leaves best. This makes sense, since young leaves are probably the most tender and easy to digest, and may have fewer poisonous chemicals than old leaves. Lupe also like flowers on occasion, both from trees like ala'a or ma'ali and from shrubs such as ti.

Starmound after Scott, S. 1969. In R.Green & J.Davidson (eds.), Archaeology in W. Samoa. Bull. Auckland Inst. & Museum. Vol. 1, 278p.

Obviously, the lupe is not a picky eater. This may explain why it is such a widespread and successful bird, since it will eat food from both coastal and mountain areas. In fact, after Hurricane Val in 1991, many lupe on the coast near Vaitogi survived by eating the fruits of toitoi. Thus, in times of limited food, it can find food where other birds might not. At other times, lupe may eat unusual foods (like leaves and flowers) to get certain nutrients, just the way people sometimes take vitamin pills to supplement their regular diets. Lupe are also able to eat some fruits that smaller birds cannot, and so may be important for spreading these trees to new areas or even among different islands.

Since the lupe is such an adaptable bird, and has been able to recover both from human activities like hunting and from natural disturbances like the hurricanes in the early 1990s, it may seem surprising that there are many fewer now than in earlier times. The most dramatic evidence for this are the many tia seulupe, or star mounds, that were built by ancient Samoans. A survey discovered the remains of over 60 tia in the eastern part of Tutuila alone. Each tia is a massive stone platform with one or more arms extending from it. Pigeon-catching huts were built on top of the platform, and village chiefs competed to catch the most birds, using a tame lupe as a decoy, and a long-handled net to sweep up the flocks of pigeons that were attracted. Early missionary accounts tell how whole villages would spend weeks camping out in the forest around the tia, and that pigeon-catching season was a time of feasting and partying. Lupe must have been very abundant to support this elaborate cultural activity. While the tia certainly had ritual and religious importance in addition to their use as pigeon-catching sites, the latest studies suggest that pigeon-catching was central to their role in ancient Samoan society. A well-preserved star mound, with explanatory signs, can be visited in Ottoville, next to the Fatuoaiga Catholic Church compound.

Now, though, the rainforest that once covered the Tafuna Plain have been cut down. This type of lowland forest, with its abundant mamalava, tava, maota, mamala, and aoa trees, was almost certainly the best habitat for lupe in American Samoa. Today, only scattered aoa remain, and lupe are seldom seen in Tafuna. Even though aoa is a valuable food for lupe, we can see that it was the whole forest, and not just one kind of tree, that made the Tafuna rainforest so valuable to lupe. However, this large area of habitat is gone, and it seems we will never see as many lupe as did the first Samoans. Perhaps more than any other animal, the lupe is of irreplaceable importance to Samoa, both because of its natural role in spreading rainforest seeds, and its cultural role in the stories, proverbs, and heritage of the Samoan people.

Pepper Trail, Joshua Seamon, DMWR

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