KUAM was at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas in July 2023, reporting on the Sihek Recovery project.

Our team is on their way there this week as a national effort to release the Guam sihek into the wild on Palmyra Atoll. The last wild sighting of the Guam sihek was in 1988 and just 141 birds are left in the world, all under human care.

KUAM will join the journey to Palmyra from Kansas next week, where we’ll also meet Erica Royer with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, who helped establish quarantine protocols.

“When I first arrived, we set up the trailer for proper quarantine and biosecurity to keep the chickens and the eggs safe from bringing any disease or anything to Palmyra Atoll,” said Royer.

It is a delicate process that many zoos and organizations across the nation have a hand in.

“Even though the birds are not being released in Guam, this is an important step to get to that point. So that is still all on our minds to make sure that the birds will one day return to Guam. The release on Palmyra will allow us to better create protocols that will be used once the birds can be released on Guam. So this is just a step towards that,” added Royer.

We spoke with Suzanne Medina, a Sihek Recovery biologist with the Guam Dept. of Agriculture, earlier this month about her hopes as those steps are taken.

“We are hoping to get as many people as possible from our home to Palmyra to see the birds so they can bring back the message of our sihek flying in the wild,” said Medina.