WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — The Sedgwick County Zoo announced Tuesday that Chacha, a rare bird called a Guam kingfisher, has begun a new chapter as a potential candidate for release into the wild.
Guam kingfishers, locally known as sihek, are classified as endangered. According to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, there are only 125 siheks in the world.
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As part of the Sihek Recovery Program, Chacha has moved to a new facility, where he will continue his release candidacy process. If selected for release, he will join the wild sihek population at the Nature Conservancy’s Palmyra Atoll Preserve.
“We are very proud to continue our partnership with the Sihek Recovery Project,” the bird curator at the Sedgwick County Zoo said in a Facebook post. “Sending Chacha as a potential release candidate is incredibly rewarding for all of our staff and underscores the work they do here at Sedgwick County Zoo every day.”
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In 2024, nine young sihek were hand-reared by a team of zookeepers at a Sedgwick County Zoo biosecure facility and later let out into the wild by the Sihek Recovery Program.
“As an organization, we strive to inspire respect and conservation of wildlife and wild places,” the zoo said in the post. “Our partnership with the Sihek Recovery Program puts that mission into action as we work alongside conservationists around the world to help bring the Sihek back from the brink of extinction and, ultimately, return the species to the wild.”…