The United States Fish and Wildlife Service and its Sihek Recovery Program partners transported nine extinct in the wild sihek (Guam kingfisher) to The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) preserve and research station on Cooper Island at Palmyra Atoll on August 28, 2024. Extinct in the wild since 1988 due to predation by the brown tree snake, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) rescued 28 sihek and established a captive-care program, which has maintained them since.
Four female and five male sihek will spend several weeks in aviaries on Cooper Island, which is encompassed by Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, giving them time to acclimatize while the team makes the final preparations for their release. These nine birds were hatched and hand-reared for this release.
Tiny trackers will be fitted to the birds to enable the team to monitor their activity as they settle into their new habitat throughout the atoll. These releases will be repeated annually until 20 sihek have successfully established themselves as breeding pairs. Palmyra Atoll will provide the sihek a predator-free wild home to establish a breeding population, with the main goal of one day returning the species to Guam once the threat from snakes is controlled.
“The refuge staff are honored that Palmyra was chosen as the location for this cutting-edge conservation action that may contribute to conservation efforts of another Pacific Island community – returning the sihek back into the forest of Guam so its people will be able to enjoy them once again,” said Stefan Kropidlowski, Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument deputy superintendent.
Sihek are endemic to the island of Guam; however, the accidental introduction of the brown tree snake to the island in the 1940s decimated sihek and other native bird populations. First listed under the Guam Endangered Species Act in 1982, the sihek was subsequently listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1984 and was officially recognized as extinct in the wild following the last wild sighting in 1988.
“We have been working with our partners on this effort for years, and we are excited to see this first step toward recovering sihek in the wild,” said Megan Laut, Pacific Islands Fish and Wildlife Office recovery program manager. “We are growing the worldwide population of sihek while also learning about their behavior in the wild for the first time in over 30 years. What we learn from the birds on Palmyra will only improve the chances of success once it is safe to release birds on Guam.”
The Sihek Recovery Program is a partnership of world-leading conservation experts from across the globe. The partnership is made up of: The Service, Guam Department of Agriculture’s Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources, Zoological Society of London, TNC, Sedgwick County Zoo, AZA, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
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