{"id":285411,"date":"2018-09-26T06:06:51","date_gmt":"2018-09-25T20:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=285411"},"modified":"2018-09-26T06:06:51","modified_gmt":"2018-09-25T20:06:51","slug":"5-mariana-crows-to-be-released-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/5-mariana-crows-to-be-released-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Mariana crows to be released Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Photo shows reared Mariana crows while growing in a facility. The CNMI Division of Fish and Wildlife has re-set the release into the wild of five Mariana crows or aga on Rota this Friday.
(DFW PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Due to damaged vegetation wrought by Typhoon Mangkhut on Rota, the CNMI Division of Fish & Wildlife has re-scheduled for Friday, Sept. 28, the first-ever release into the wild of five reared Mariana crows, which is the most critically endangered crow in the world.<\/p>\n

DFW supervisor Jill Liske-Clark said the original date to release the crows, locally known as aga, was Sept. 13, but this was postponed due to Typhoon Mangkhut that hit Rota last Sept. 10. <\/p>\n

The release of these crows into the wild on Rota is, according to Liske-Clark, a huge milestone in their captive rearing program.<\/p>\n

That is why they are not providing the specific location of the release site, Liske-Clark said, to protect the birds. She would only say that it is public land on the east side of the island.<\/p>\n

She said the place was selected because the forest provides quality habitat (even after Typhoon Mangkhut) and was formerly occupied by crows, but is currently unoccupied.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe released crows will have less competition with wild crows to establish and defend territories,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Five more Mariana crows will be released next month.<\/p>\n

Of the 10 birds that will be released, nine are females and one is male.<\/p>\n

Liske-Clark said the ratio is purely by chance.<\/p>\n

The University of Washington will be tracking the released crows for approximately one year after their release to ensure they are doing well in the wild.<\/p>\n

Lands and Natural Resources Secretary Anthony Benavente and DFW director Manny Pangelinan both plan to attend the release on Rota but it will not be open to the public.<\/p>\n

There are fewer than 200 Mariana crows left globally, all of them on Rota. The Guam population of the species was wiped out many years ago.<\/p>\n

To prevent extinction, DLNR, the San Diego Zoo, University of Washington, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service initiated a captive rearing program on Rota two years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cEggs and chicks were taken from the nests of wild birds and brought into a facility for rearing, safe from predators, storms, and other events that cause failure of nests in the wild,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Liske-Clark said the first group of captive-raised Mariana crow are now 2 years old and are ready for release.<\/p>\n

She said San Diego Zoo has been extremely successful in rearing Mariana crow in captivity, with all viable eggs hatched and 95 percent of all hatchlings surviving to independence.<\/p>\n

Thirteen younger birds remain in captivity and will be released next year. <\/p>\n

The population of aga has declined by about 50 percent since the 1990s, which prompted the decision to start the captive rearing program in 2016. <\/p>\n

In 2014, for the first time in CNMI history, two captive Mariana crows, which were under the watch and care of the Rota Avian Behavioral Ecology Program, were released into the wild.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Due to damaged vegetation wrought by Typhoon Mangkhut on Rota, the CNMI Division of Fish…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":285415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[1584,7933,22805,22618],"class_list":["post-285411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-dfw","tag-manny-pangelinan","tag-san-diego-zoo","tag-typhoon-mangkhut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}