by Sara Shipley, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
September 24, 2003
In a basement at the St. Louis Zoo, invisible to thronging crowds above, keepers tend 13 cinnamon-and-blue birds with the utmost care. These Micronesian kingfishers are precious, among the last of their kind.
"We have like a sixth of the population in the world, right here," said Mike Macek, the Zoo's bird curator.
The St. Louis Zoo is a leader in a national plan to return the endangered bird to the wild. On Tuesday, a Zoo staff veterinarian, Dr. Randy Junge, flew to Guam, where he will help re-establish three captive-bred birds - none from St. Louis - on their native North Pacific island.
If the program works - which Macek gives a 50-50 chance - it will be one of a few success stories in keeping a rapidly disappearing species from vanishing from the Earth.
The Micronesian kingfisher lived in a virtual Garden of Eden on Guam until World War II. Brown tree snakes hitchhiking on military ships nearly wiped out the Micronesian kingfisher and other native birds that had never known predators.
By the late 1980s, the remaining 29 birds on the island were captured and brought to U.S. zoos to establish a breeding program. The birds are considered extinct in the wild.
In their native habitat, the birds peck holes in soft palm trees for their nests. They eat large insects, crabs and lizards. Their raspy calls are voiced with such regularity that locals claimed they could be used to tell time.
Today, only 61 of the birds exist at 11 U.S. zoos. The St. Louis Zoo raised six hatchlings this year, four by hand and two by parents. Only one other zoo had success with chicks this season, rearing one youngster.
Macek said the birds had proved difficult to rear in captivity. Diseases claimed some chicks and eggs, some pairs refused to breed and some parents ate their young, apparently mistaking their blind and naked hatchlings for food.
That contrasts with the California condor, which rebounded from a low of 22 birds in 1982 to 150 birds in 2000 with the help of a successful breeding program. Reintroduced to the wild, California condors now soar over the mountains and canyons of California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah.
The species survival plan for the Micronesian kingfisher, adopted by members of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, calls for putting three U.S.-raised male birds at aviaries on Guam. The National Zoological Park raised the new arrivals.
Junge, who has served as veterinary adviser to the plan since 1993, will help set up care procedures for the birds. In about a year, a female or a breeding pair will join the others, in hopes of establishing a breeding program on Guam.
The long-term goal, which could take five years or more, is to release kingfishers into the wild. Meanwhile, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Guam Department of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources are working on ways to control the brown tree snake.
Every step in the process is painstaking. "You can't just open the cage and go, 'Shoo,'" Macek said.
Republished with the permission of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Copyright 2004 St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Courtesy of STLtoday.com
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