Spotlight on Zoo Science
August 26, 2004
Rare Guam Micronesian Kingfisher Hatched
A rare Guam Micronesian kingfisher—a subspecies extinct in the wild—hatched at the Zoo's Conservation and Research Center.
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| Guam Micronesian kingfisher chick hatched at the Zoo. |
A rare Guam Micronesian kingfisher (Halcyon cinnamomina cinnamomina or Todirhamphus cinnamominus) hatched on July 15 at the Zoo’s Conservation and Research Center. The chick, the first offspring of a genetically valuable pair, weighed only 5.5 grams (about 1/5 of an ounce) at hatching.
“We would have preferred to have the parents raise their chick,” says CRC Bird Curator Scott Derrickson, “but when the parents refused to incubate the egg, it was removed from the nest cavity for artificial incubation and hand rearing. Few chicks have been hatched successfully from eggs receiving full-term artificial incubation, so we are extremely pleased.”
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| Keepers are hand rearing the valuable baby. |
Hand rearing is extremely labor intensive, as young chicks need to be fed at two-hour intervals, seven to eight times per day. “All five of my bird staff—Mark Albaugh, Carolyn Emerick, Warren Lynch, Rick Mazza, and Geoffrey Reynolds—have done an exceptional job in meeting this demanding schedule. We are now through the period of the chick's most rapid growth, but still have a long way to go until the young bird is fully grown and independent.”
Like most of Guam’s native birds, kingfishers were decimated by a predator, the brown tree snake, which was introduced to Guam from Melanesia following World War II. The last wild Micronesian kingfisher was observed on Guam in 1986, and the species exists now only in captivity. The captive population, which numbers about 65 birds distributed among 12 zoos, is being managed under the auspices of the American Zoo Association's Species Survival Program (SSP).
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| A kingfisher is pictured on Micronesian postage stamps. |
CRC research and animal care staff have been involved in all aspects of the conservation program for this species since its inception. Derrickson, who serves on both the SSP's Management Committee and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Recovery Coordinating Committee, notes that the ultimate goal of the breeding program is to reintroduce kingfisher's to their native habitat on Guam. Although breeding this species in captivity has proven difficult, he remains optimistic about the kingfisher's survival and repatriation to Guam.
Over the past two decades, researchers have developed a variety of techniques for controlling brown tree snakes, including barriers, trapping, and toxicants. As soon as these techniques can be implemented effectively over large areas of native habitat, scientists can begin reintroducing kingfishers to Guam.
To support this reintroduction effort, the SSP is increasing the captive kingfisher population as quickly as possible, and working with Guam's Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources (DAWR) to establish a captive breeding facility on Guam. The DAWR facility received two male kingfishers from CRC in September 2003 and a breeding pair from the San Diego Zoo in April 2004, and additional transfers are planned.
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| The coloration of juvenile Micronesian kingfishers, pictured on this stamp, is different from that of adults. |
Additionally, field studies of wild kingfishers are underway on another Micronesian island, called Pohnpei, to secure essential biological information on wild populations and to test various reintroduction techniques for use on Guam. The Pohnpei field studies are being directed by Susan Haig and her students at Oregon State University. Now a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, Haig worked at CRC on Micronesian kingfisher genetics with Derrickson and Jon Ballou as a Smithsonian postdoctoral fellow in the 1980s.
Her participation in the recovery program pleases Derrickson, who notes, "Sue recognized early on that the effort to reestablish the Micronesian kingfisher on Guam would span many years, and require the sustained commitment of many individuals, institutions, and agencies."
