Page 16 - Gateways_Winter2016-17

COOKIE continued Holding Pattern

GKUINAGMFISHER Cookie was the public face of the bird program at Brookfield
16 GATEWAYS | BYE BYE PRETTY BIRDIE Zoo and will certainly be missed, but animal care specialists
continue to improve husbandry techniques for birds
and work to ensure the survival of species in need. Most
notably, the zoo is now serving as a holding site for Guam
kingfishers bred at other institutions. Ten enclosures have
been built behind the scenes at Tropic World, and another
20 are scheduled for construction soon.

Populations of these kingfishers declined in the wild
after invasive brown tree snakes were accidentally released
on their native Guam in the 1940s. By the mid-1980s, fewer
than 50 birds lived on Guam, so the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service sent the last 29 birds to zoos across the United States
to breed. A small founding population makes it important
for the birds to be as genetically diverse as possible to ensure
healthy offspring. Through scientific methods, researchers
have determined that a zoo population of 250 birds would
yield enough genetic diversity to prevent deficiencies such as
a rise in infant deaths.

Of the 146 birds currently residing in zoos accredited by
AZA, three pairs live at Brookfield Zoo. These six birds have
extremely high genetic value. We hope that their offspring
eventually will be released on Micronesian islands free of
brown tree snakes as conservationists figure out methods for
increasing wild populations while these snakes are eradicated
on Guam itself.

Together, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the
Guam Department of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources have
located three islands that would make a good home for
kingfishers: Cocos Island off the southern coast of Guam,
Palmyra Atoll in the Line Islands, and Kosrae in the Federal
States of Micronesia. Each closely mimics kingfisher habitat
minus brown tree snakes. Palmyra and Cocos are tiny and
would serve only as test sites for releases in 2018. Kosrae is
large enough for a self-sustaining population of kingfishers,
intended to begin in 2020.

Zoos breeding kingfishers for eventual release into the
wild must escalate the rate of births if the population of
250 can be reached in the expected five years. The growth
of the collective zoo population has declined slightly in the
last few years because of a lack of breeding space, but the
new enclosures here should alleviate that setback. It could
take decades for Guam kingfishers to make a full recovery
in the wild, and we are proud to support this program in
the meantime.

Al and Amy Ottens support this program through their
estate plans with the Chicago Zoological Society. █