Guam rail
Species of bird / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Guam rail?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
The Guam rail (Hypotaenidia owstoni) is a species of flightless bird in the Rallidae family, endemic to the United States territory of Guam. It is known locally as the ko'ko' bird.[2] It was extirpated from the entire island by the late 1980s owing to the predation of the brown tree snake, an invasive species not native to the island.
Guam rail | |
---|---|
At the Cincinnati Zoo | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Gruiformes |
Family: | Rallidae |
Genus: | Hypotaenidia |
Species: | H. owstoni |
Binomial name | |
Hypotaenidia owstoni Rothschild, 1895 | |
Synonyms | |
|
The species is now being bred in captivity by the Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources on Guam, and at some mainland U.S. zoos. Since 1995, more than 100 rails have been introduced on the island of Rota in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, in an attempt to establish a wild breeding colony. Although at least one chick resulted from these efforts, feral cat predation and accidental deaths have been extremely high. In 2010, 16 birds were released onto Cocos Island, with 12 more being introduced in 2012.[1] In 2019, the species became only the second bird after the California condor to be reclassified by the IUCN from extinct in the wild to critically endangered.[1][3]