โ Scribed by Josef Lindholm III
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
It seems largely forgotten or overlooked that the program resulting in the present populations of the otherwise extinct Guam rail (Gallirallus owstoni) and Guam kingfisher (Halcyon c. cinnamonia) was inaugurated with the primary purpose of preserving three taxa now entirely extinct.
It was the precipitous decline of the Guam broadbill flycatcher (Myiagra freycineti), Guam rufous fantail (Rhipidura rufifrons uraniae), and the Guam bridled white-eye (Zosterops c. conspicillata) that launched rescue efforts for that island's birds. These were the taxa perceived to be in immediate danger. The work with kingfishers and rails was considered precautionary [Jaffe, 1994].
As it happened, no specimens of the three passeriformes entered a captive breeding program. By the time serious attempts at trapping commenced in the fall of 1983, the white-eye was probably extinct (although sighted earlier that year), whereas only male broadbills and fantails could be found [Jaffe, 1994]. The later taxa were probably gone by the end of 1984, victims, as was only subsequently established, of the introduced brown tree snake.
Concern for Guam's endemic small passerines had been aroused by the mid-1970s, and attempts to place them on the Federal Endangered Species List were made in 1978. However, captive propagation was attempted only as a desperate final measure. There was no precedent for the establishment, as a self-sustaining population, of any insectivorous bird. The success of any such endeavor would be far from certain.
The same can be said today. Although tremendous progress in sustained captive propagation has been achieved in a broad range of orders and families of birds traditionally designated "softbills," over the past century, much remains to be understood before the establishment of the majority of such species can be attempted in any confidence. This is especially true for the more than 300 species traditionally included among the "Old World flycatchers" (now divided into several families), to which Rhipidura and Myiagra belong. Neither genus has bred in an American zoo. Indeed, only three "Old World flycatchers" have reproduced in U.S. zoos, all since 1993 [Lindholm, 1996]: The Grand Niltava (Niltava grandis), Fukien Niltava (N. davidi), and Verditer flycather (Muscipa talassina). And out of the roughly 400 species comprising the
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