The Comeback Bird: Meet the Ko'Ko'

Short Wave

NPR

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4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2020

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

For nearly forty years, the Guam Rail bird (locally known as the ko'ko') has been extinct in the wild — decimated by the invasive brown tree snake. But now, after a decades-long recovery effort, the ko'ko' has been successfully re-introduced. It is the second bird in history to recover from extinction in the wild. Wildlife biologist Suzanne Medina tells us the story of how the Guam Department of Agriculture brought the ko'ko' back, with a little matchmaking and a lot of patience.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to shortwave from NPR.
0:04.4	Hey everybody, I have shortwave reporter Emily Kwong in the studio with me.
0:09.2	Hey, Maddie.
0:10.2	Hey you.
0:11.2	So today we are turning a spotlight on Guam, which is a US Island territory in the Pacific
0:16.3	ocean.
0:17.3	That's right.
0:18.3	Guam is an eight hour plane ride from Hawaii, but a quick phone call for us to reach Susanne
0:22.8	Medina.
0:23.8	She's a wildlife biologist with the Guam Department of Agriculture.
0:27.5	We spoke with her at 5.15 in the morning, her time.
0:29.9	I naturally get up early.
0:31.5	I enjoyed the quiet in the morning, and Guam is just a little too quiet because there
0:36.5	are no birds that are waking up with us.
0:39.5	Why is it so quiet?
0:40.6	I feel like it's a tropical island, so it should be bustling with some bird songs.
0:45.8	You would think.
0:46.8	But sometime in the mid-20th century, Guam's biodiversity began to take a nose dive because
0:53.8	of one slithering stowaway.
0:56.7	Uh oh.
0:57.7	Yeah.
0:58.7	In the late 1940s, the island was being rebuilt.
	...

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