Endangered bird species lays first wild eggs in 4 decades thanks to Cincinnati Zoo conservation efforts
By Fletcher Keel
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CINCINNATI (WLWT) — The first wild eggs of an endangered bird have been laid for the first time in almost four decades, and the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden helped to play a role!
The zoo says Sihek, an endangered bird recently returned to the wild, have laid eggs on their new Pacific island home at Palmyra Atoll, making them the first wild eggs for the species in almost 40 years.
Nine young Sihek—also known as Guam kingfishers—that were hand-raised by zookeepers were released at The Nature Conservancy’s Palmyra Atoll Preserve, about 1,000 miles south of Honolulu, Hawai’i, in September of last year by the Sihek Recovery Program.
According to the Cincinnati Zoo, three of those nine birds came from the zoo.
“This work on Palmyra is something I couldn’t have imagined witnessing in my lifetime, let alone being a part of,” said Cincinnati Zoo’s Senior Aviculturist Aimee Owen in a press release. “We’re so excited that they’ve all come as far as they have and that Tutuhan, Cincinnati’s first egg, first chick produced, and the first chick of the entire project is now one of the first to produce eggs on the island.
“Her being ‘the first of firsts’ of this ground-breaking conservation work is a milestone that simply fills us with pride, even beyond playing our role in the first place,” Owen continued.
The zoo says the birds, four females and five males, have learned how to forage and hunt new prey, formed pairs, established territories, build nests and laid eggs. It’s the first time the species has bred in the wild since their extinction from their native island of Guam in the 1980s, officials say.
“The short-term goal is to establish a fully self-sustaining Sihek population on Palmyra Atoll,” said Owen in a press release. “The ultimate goal is to reestablish a Sihek population on Guam.”
The mated pairs are less than a year old, the zoo says, and this is their first time incubating and caring for eggs. Officials say this means it’s likely it’ll take a few rounds of egg laying for the birds to hone their skills and hatch chicks.
Sihek, as the birds are known by the indigenous CHamoru people of Guam, were decimated when the brown tree snake was accidentally introduced to the islands in the 1940s, zoo officials say. As the species’ population crashed, Guam biologists brought 29 Sihek under human care, starting a conservation breeding program in Associations of Zoos and Aquariums accredited zoos across the U.S.
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