| The Guam Rail is a special bird. Locally
known as the Ko Ko,' it is endemic to Guam, which means it is found only
on Guam and nowhere else in the world. This bird is dark brown with white
stripes on its stomach.
The Ko Ko' came to the island thousands
of years ago. At that time it was able to fly. However, since there were
no predators on Guam it slowly lost the ability to fly. Then people arrived
on the island and brought dogs and other animals with them.
Sometime after World War II, the brown
tree snake also found its way to our island. Since the Ko Ko' is flightless
and builds its shallow nest on the ground, it was easy for these snakes
to catch the Ko Ko' and its babies. As of 1994, there were only 200 birds
left. Some Ko Ko's were released in Rota. They multiplied and some
were released on Guam. |
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