Guam Sihek recovery a full circle moment for Guam Olympian, Wildlife Refuge Specialist

The Guam sihek are adjusting to their temporary home on Palmyra Atoll. KUAM News spoke with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, including a Guam Olympian, who supported the recovery project in Hawaii.

Nine Guam Sihek are settling into their new home on The Nature Conservancy’s preserve and research station on Palmyra Atoll. They are weeks away from leaving their aviaries. On KUAM’s trip home from Palmyra, we met Wildlife Refuge Specialist Raina Taitingfong, who is from Guam, in Hawaii.

"As a biologist and as a CHamoru woman and someone that grew up on Guam not hearing birds, I mean, we're right here in Waikiki, and that's all you hear? You know, people don't realize that when you grow up on Guam, you don't hear these things," she said.

She hopes the birds can sing again on Guam. She was a biologist at Guam’s Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources and participated in early conversations about the sihek’s recovery. The Olympian describes supporting the international effort as a full-circle moment.

"And yeah, I'm an Olympian, but it's actually really cool. That's cool to represent my island. And then I get to come here and be with my career and representing my island species. So I'm really lucky and blessed," she said.

Now, all eyes are on the sihek's behavior in the aviary ahead of their hopeful wild release.

Stefan Kropidlowski, Deputy Superintendent, Wildlife Refuge Manager, Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, noted, "We are really interested to see how they're going to behave, how what they're going to eat, how they interact with each other, how they interact with other creatures and wildlife around them. And all that information, there's people paid to be down there to just watch these birds, and they're going to gather all that information, and all of it's going to help us to learn, once Guam's ready, like, how can we be the most successful in releasing the birds back on Guam?"

On Palmyra, we spoke with the Recovery Program Manager with the Pacific Islands Fish and Wildlife Office Megan Laut who reflected on the journey. "We’ve been working for so long to bring these birds to Palmyra and to have these birds, in the wild again. And I am on Palmyra, the birds are on Palmyra. It is really hard to believe. But it is. It is real," she said.

Now the future points to returning those birds to the wild on Guam, as Taitingfong said, "Hopefully, ten years from now, who knows, maybe we will start hearing birds again."