PREVIEW

An extinct-in-the-wild chick has successfully hatched. The birth marks a key milestone of an ambitious project to return the species to the wild. The female sihek, also known as Guam kingfisher, hatched on 28 April at Sedgwick County Zoo in Kansas. Known as sihek by the indigenous Chamorro people, the species once flourished on the North Pacific island of Guam. However, the accidental introduction of the brown tree snake to the island in the 1940s wiped out many native birds, bats and lizards. The last wild sighting of sihek was in 1988 and the birds are now considered Extinct in the Wild by the IUCN. There are currently only 141 sihek left in the world, all under human care. Now the Sihek Recovery Program is working to establish a temporary wild population on the island of Palmyra Atoll where there are no invasive snakes or other predators such as rats - before their eventual return to Guam. With only 45 breeding females left in the world, the female chick is vital to restore this species back to the wild.