Caretakers launched six Guam kingfishers, a fowl species recognized regionally as sihek, into the wild on Palmyra Atoll on Sept. 23, marking their first free flight in almost 4 a long time and a triumphant return from being categorized as “extinct within the wild.”
“Our Guam Sihek, an emblem of our island’s magnificence, with their cerulean blue and cinnamon coloration mirroring our ocean blue water and red-orange sunsets, have been reaching the seemingly unimaginable,” Yolonda Topasna, from the Guam Division of Agriculture’s Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Assets, stated in an announcement. “Right this moment, the Sihek had been let loose from their aviaries! Their return to the wild is a testomony to our individuals’s spirit and our dedication to preserving our heritage.”
The sihek (Todiramphus cinnamominus) was as soon as endemic to the forests of Guam, an island within the western Pacific that’s immediately a U.S. territory. The unintended introduction of the brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis) within the Forties devastated the island’s native wildlife, together with many native birds whose eggs had been eaten by the snakes.
A rescue operation within the Eighties introduced 29 birds into captivity. These people shaped the muse of a breeding program that has stored the species alive for the previous 35 years, even because the sihek was declared extinct within the wild by 1988.
Lastly, on Sept. 23, 2024, six younger sihek had been launched from their non permanent aviaries into the luxurious forests of Palmyra Atoll, a predator-free sanctuary about 5,900 kilometers (3,700 miles) east of Guam.
The journey to this launch started earlier within the yr when the primary sihek chick of the season hatched in April at Sedgwick County Zoo within the U.S. state of Kansas. Provided that solely 45 breeding females remained on the earth at the moment, the hatching was a giant win for this system. A crew of specialists, together with keepers from the Zoological Society of London’s Whipsnade and London zoos within the U.Okay., offered round the clock look after the chick.
The birds had been transported by airplane to the atoll in late August, the place they underwent a interval of acclimatization earlier than their launch. Researchers will present supplemental meals to assist the sihek transition to foraging within the wild, the place they might want to hunt bugs, geckos and different small prey.
Every launched fowl has been fitted with a tiny radio tracker, permitting researchers to observe their actions, habitat use and eventual breeding actions. The info might be essential for understanding how the sihek adapts to life within the wild after generations in captivity. The following few months might be essential because the birds set up territories and probably start breeding.
“It has been a multiyear endeavor to get the birds up to now, from breeding the sihek, incubating the eggs, hand rearing the chicks and now releasing them in Palmyra,” stated Erica Royer, an aviculturist from the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Washington, D.C., U.S. “As somebody who cares for sihek each day, it’s monumental to have the ability to reintroduce these people into the wild after greater than three a long time.”
The discharge is an element of a bigger plan to determine a breeding inhabitants of 10 pairs of sihek on Palmyra Atoll, a totally protected U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Nationwide Wildlife Refuge. Scientists say they hope this may function a stepping stone towards the last word objective of returning the sihek to its native Guam as soon as the menace from brown tree snakes there may be adequately addressed.
This historic occasion is the end result of years of collaborative work by the Sihek Restoration Program, a partnership devoted to reestablishing the species within the wild and involving the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Guam Division of Agriculture’s Division of Aquatic & Wildlife Assets, Zoological Society of London, The Nature Conservancy, Sedgwick County Zoo, and the Affiliation of Zoos and Aquariums.
Nevertheless, having solely a handful of people left in a species is dangerous, particularly in the event that they’re multi function place. Occasions like pure disasters, illness, lack of dedication from establishments sustaining these populations, or simply the random dangerous luck of getting a era of offspring which might be all one intercourse may finish a species.
Donal Smith, a postdoctoral researcher at ZSL, pointed to the Catarina pupfish as a cautionary story. This small freshwater fish disappeared from the wild in 1994, partly resulting from groundwater extraction from the native springs the place it lived in northeastern Mexico. There have been nonetheless some fish in captivity, however due to poor coordination and communication amongst their caretakers, the fish went extinct in captivity 20 years after going extinct within the wild.
“By the point individuals realized there was a disaster,” Smith stated, “it was too late to behave.”
“Conservationists, and society extra broadly, should do higher,” Smith wrote in an op-ed with conservation ecologist Sarah Dalrymple. “We all know that outright extinction is an actual menace.”
Extinction will not be solely a menace however a harsh actuality. Scientists agree we’re experiencing a mass extinction occasion. Earlier main extinctions, just like the one which worn out the dinosaurs, had been brought on by catastrophes corresponding to volcanic eruptions, depletion of oxygen, and asteroid affect. Every of those occasions worn out an estimated 70-90% of life on Earth on the time.
Our present extinction disaster is brought on by people, pushed by habitat destruction and fragmentation, poaching, unlawful commerce, overharvesting, the introduction of nonnative and domesticated species into the wild, pathogens, air pollution, and local weather disruption.
In the case of extinction, there may be some hope. A number of extinct-in-the-wild species have been efficiently reintroduced, such because the purple wolf (Canis rufus), Española large tortoise (Chelonoidis hoodensis), Przewalski’s horse (Equus ferus przewalskii), California condor (Gymnogyps californianus), Ko’ko’ fowl (Hypotaenidia owstoni), Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx), black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes), tequila splitfin fish (Zoogoneticus tequila), Yarkon bream (Acanthobrama telavivensis), the Mediterranean flower Diplotaxis siettiana, and the Hawaiian tree Hibiscadelphus giffardianus, revived from the only remaining tree on the Huge Island.
Holding a species alive and wholesome in captivity or cultivation takes large work, sources, coordination, and long-term dedication. “Due to a long time of tireless work saving species,” Smith stated, “we’ve the chance to reestablish extra populations within the wild; it’s crucial that conservation zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens and seed banks are given the monetary — and intergovernmental — help to take action.”
This article by Liz Kimbrough was first printed by Mongabay.com on 25 September 2024. Lead Picture: A sihek in Sedgewick County Zoo. Picture courtesy of Thomas Manglona / KUAM.
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