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58-536: The Guam rail ( Hypotaenidia owstoni ), known locally and in Chamorro as ko'ko' , is a small, terrestrial bird endemic to Guam in the Rallidae family . They are one of the island's few remaining endemic bird species. The species became extinct in the wild in the early 1980s when biologists captured the remaining wild population to establish a breeding program. They have since been successfully introduced to

116-465: A mixed language under a historical point of view, even though it remains independent and unique. In his Chamorro Reference Grammar , Donald M. Topping states: "The most notable influence on Chamorro language and culture came from the Spanish.... There was wholesale borrowing of Spanish words and phrases into Chamorro, and there was even some borrowing from the Spanish sound system. But this borrowing

174-668: A Guamanian Chamorro might consider the form used by NMI Chamorros to be archaic. Representatives from Guam have unsuccessfully lobbied the United States to take action to promote and protect the language. In 2013, "Guam will be instituting Public Law 31–45 , which increases the teaching of the Chamorro language and culture in Guam schools", extending instruction to include grades 7–10. Other efforts have been made in recent times, most notably Chamorro immersion schools. One example

232-550: A closed syllable ( *peResi → fokse "squeeze out", but afok "lime" → afuki "put lime on"). The phonemic split between / ɑ / and / æ / is still unexplained. Diphthongs *ay and *aw are still retained in Chamorro, while *uy has become i . If a word started with a vowel or *h (but not *q ), then prothesis with gw or g (before o or u ) occurred: *aku → gwahu "I (emphatic)", *enem → gunum "six". Additionally, *-iaC , *-ua(C) , and *-auC have become -iyaC , -ugwa(C) , and -agoC respectively. Chamorro

290-457: A easy food source for the birds. Pieces of snail shell and coral have been found in the stomach and gizzard contents of Guam rails, suggesting use as grit. Guam rails have been observed foraging and hunting. When foraging, they peck food from the ground and eat seeds and flowers from grasses. They have also been observed hunting insects, particularly butterflies. The species hosted a unique louse, Rallicola guami , which seems to have been

348-484: A medium-sized rail species, growing to about 11 inches (28 cm) in total length. Adults will weigh around 7 to 12 ounces (200 to 350 grams). They have an elongated body, with small wings and medium-length legs. Guam rails have underdeveloped wing muscles and are considered flightless , though they can fly about 3 to 10 feet (1 to 3 meters) at once. Their strong leg muscles make them fast runners instead. Adult Guam rails are monomorphic , meaning males and females have

406-452: A rain forest has as the canopy is dry. In the dry season the ground is covered by leaves that will not decay until the soil is moist. The trees often flower during the dry season and start to grow during the wet season. The soil is usually latasol. The xerophytic ecosystem is also known as dry woodland. It is found in areas of rain shadow in the tropical marine climate. This ecosystem often develops soils that drain quickly. The dry woodland

464-407: A stowaway in a military cargo ship after World War II. Once introduced to Guam, it thrived with an abundance of prey lacking natural predators. The snake is an opportunistic feeder , and on Guam has been observed to consume lizards, birds, eggs, insects, small mammals, and human trash. The snake is nocturnal and arboreal and adept at preying on roosting and nesting birds and their offspring. Over time,

522-404: A victim of conservation-induced extinction , since Guam rails taken into captivity were deloused to assist survival; it is considered most likely extinct . The brown treesnake ( Boiga irregularis ) is one of the primary threats to the survival of the Guam rail; the introduction of the snake has been catastrophic for Guam's biodiversity. The snake was likely passively introduced to the island as

580-486: A wild breeding colony. In 2010, 16 birds were released onto Cocos Island , with 12 more being introduced in 2012. The Guam rail was first described as Hypotaenidia owstoni in 1895 by Lord Walter Rothschild . Rothschild announced the specific name owstoni was "in honour of Mr. Alan Owston , of Yokohama, whose men have collected for me on the Marianne Islands ." The generic name, Hypotaenidia , comes from

638-458: Is Huråo Guåhan Academy at Chamorro Village in downtown Hagåtña. This program is led by Ann Marie Arceo and her husband, Ray. According to the academy's official YouTube page, "Huråo Academy is one if not the first Chamoru Immersion Schools that focus on the teaching of Chamoru language and Self-identity on Guam. Huråo was founded as a non-profit in June 2005." The academy has been praised by many for

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696-473: Is a VSO or verb–subject–object language. However, the word order can be very flexible and change to SVO ( subject-verb-object ), like English, if necessary to convey different types of relative clauses depending on context and to stress parts of what someone is trying to say or convey. Again, that is subject to debate as those on Guam believe the Chamorro word order is flexible, but those in the NMI do not. Chamorro

754-590: Is a chart of Chamorro consonants; all are unaspirated. Words containing *-VC_CV- in Proto-Malayo-Polynesian were often syncopated to *-VCCV- . This is most regular for words containing middle *ə ( schwa ), e.g. *qaləjaw → atdaw "sun", but sometimes also with other vowels, e.g. * qanitu → anti "soul, spirit, ghost". Then after this syncope, older *ə merged with u . Later, *i and *u were lowered to e and o in closed syllables ( *demdem → homhom "dark"), or finally but preceded by

812-713: Is a year-round ground nester and lays 2–4 eggs per clutch, and both parents share in the construction of a shallow nest of leaves and grass. They mature at six months of age, and have been known to produce up to 10 clutches per year in captivity. Their nesting habits make them highly susceptible to predators, such as the native Mariana monitor and the invasive feral pig , feral cat , feral dog , mangrove monitor , brown tree snake , black rat , and Norway rat . Guam rails are omnivorous foragers known to consume gastropods , insects , geckos , seeds, and vegetable matter. A large part of their diet consists of giant African snails , which were introduced to Guam around 1945 and became

870-430: Is also an agglutinative language , whose grammar allows root words to be modified by a number of affixes . For example, masanganenñaihon 'talked a while (with/to)', passive marking prefix ma- , root verb sangan , referential suffix i 'to' (forced morphophonemically to change to e ) with excrescent consonant n , and suffix ñaihon 'a short amount of time'. Thus Masanganenñaihon guiʼ 'He/she

928-520: Is the historic native language of the Chamorro people , who are indigenous to the Mariana Islands , although it is less commonly spoken today than in the past. Chamorro has three distinct dialects : Guamanian, Rotanese, and that in the other Northern Mariana Islands (NMI). Unlike most of its neighbors, Chamorro is not classified as a Micronesian or Polynesian language. Rather, like Palauan , it possibly constitutes an independent branch of

986-409: Is very different from the rainforest . The biomass is a lot less than a rainforest as there is little rain. The tallest of trees are only 15 to 25 meters high in the dry woodland. Dry woodland trees either have small leaves or shed their leaves. The trees have very thick bark and the trunks are crooked. Mangroves grow in coastal wetlands, which are called hydrophytic ecosystems. The vegetation at

1044-425: The kareta. car Ha faʼgåsi si Juan i kareta. 3sSA wash PND Juan the car 'Juan washed the car.' Håyi who? fumaʼgåsi Tropical marine climate During the dry season there is less rainfall than in the wet season, but there is little variation in temperature between the two seasons. Tropical marine regions are influenced by anticyclones during the dry season and tropical waves during

1102-464: The Guam kingfisher , are bred in captivity with hope that they may eventually be released back into the wild. Several other native species exist in precariously small numbers, and their future on Guam is perilous. Most native forest species, including the Guam rail, were virtually extinct when they were listed as threatened or endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1984. Appreciable losses of

1160-486: The Malayo-Polynesian language family . At the time the Spanish rule over Guam ended, it was thought that Chamorro was a semi- creole language , with a substantial amount of the vocabulary of Spanish origin and beginning to have a high level of mutual intelligibility with Spanish. It is reported that even in the early 1920s, Spanish was reported to be a living language in Guam for commercial transactions, but

1218-662: The San Diego Zoo , the Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo , and zoos in Chicago , Houston , and San Antonio . The efforts by Beck, and others, to save the Guam rail have been promising. There are now approximately 120 Guam rails in captivity in Guam, and approximately 35 birds in captive breeding programs throughout the United States. Biologist Gary Wiles, who worked on the Guam rail breeding program from 1981 through 2000, said of Beck's efforts to save

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1276-402: The 17th century and ended in the early 20th century, meant a profound change from the old Chamorro (paleo-Chamorro) to modern Chamorro (neo-Chamorro) in its grammar , phonology , and vocabulary . The Chamorro language is threatened, with a precipitous drop in language fluency over the past century. It is estimated that 75% of the population of Guam was literate in the Chamorro language around

1334-616: The Ancient Greek hypo meaning "under" and tainia meaning "stripe" or "band." This refers to the banded feathers seen on their underside and wings, typically found across rail species.   Okinawa rail   Barred rail   New Britain rail   Bar-winged rail   Bougainville rail   Santa Isabel rail   Guadalcanal rail   Roviana rail  Guam rail   Wake rail   Dieffenbach's rail   Lord Howe Woodhen   Buff-banded rail   Tahiti rail Guam rails are

1392-545: The Chamorro language even during the Spanish colonial era, but this was all to change with the advent of American imperialism and enforcement of the English language. In Guam, the language suffered additional suppression when the U.S. government banned the Chamorro language in schools and workplaces in 1922, destroying all Chamorro dictionaries. Similar policies were undertaken by the Japanese government when they controlled

1450-583: The Chamorro language, and island culture into an entertaining program. On TV, Nihi! Kids is a first-of-its-kind show, because it is targeted "for Guam's nenis that aims to perpetuate Chamoru language and culture while encouraging environmental stewardship, healthy choices and character development." In 2019, local news station KUAM News began a series of videos on their YouTube channel, featuring University of Guam's Dr. Michael Bevacqua . Chamorro has 24 phonemes : 18 are consonants and six are vowels . Chamorro has at least 6 vowels, which include: Below

1508-520: The Chamorro lexicon comes from Spanish, whose contribution goes far beyond loanwords. Rodríguez-Ponga (1995) considers Chamorro to be either Spanish-Austronesian or a Spanish-Austronesian mixed language, or at least a language that has emerged from a process of contact and creolization on the island of Guam since modern Chamorro is influenced in vocabulary and has in its grammar many elements of Spanish origin: verbs , articles, prepositions , numerals , conjunctions , etc. The process, which began in

1566-553: The Guam rail began in 1982, and lasted more than 20 years. Beck was considered to be instrumental in capturing the remaining population of Guam rails, and establishing captive breeding programs for the species on Guam. He later established a release site and an introduced breeding population of Guam rails on the neighboring island of Rota in the Northern Mariana Islands . Beck was also a driving force in establishing Guam rail breeding programs in zoos throughout

1624-443: The Guam rail was not evident until the mid 1960s. By 1963, several formerly abundant rails had disappeared from the central part of the island where snakes were most populous. By the late 1960s, it had begun to decline in the central and southern parts of the island, and remained abundant only in isolated patches of forest on the northern end of the island. Snakes began affecting the rail in the north-central and extreme northern parts of

1682-403: The Guam rail, "Bob was one of the first to begin organizing catching the birds, so they could be brought into captivity, held there, and bred. He started a captive population. We still have Guam rails today because of his efforts." Suzanne Medina, a wildlife biologist, also credited Beck with saving the Guam rail, "Bob Beck was the ko'ko' champion; [he] was Guam's champion at the time for preventing

1740-832: The Northern Mariana Islands (NMI), younger Chamorros speak the language fluently but prefer English when speaking to their children. Chamorro is common in Chamorro households in the Northern Marianas, but fluency has greatly decreased among Guamanian Chamorros during the years of American rule in favor of the American English commonplace throughout the Marianas. Today, NMI Chamorros and Guamanian Chamorros disagree strongly on each other's linguistic fluency. An NMI Chamorro would say Guamanian Chamorros speak "broken" Chamorro (i.e., incorrect), whereas

1798-425: The basis of sounds attributed to chicks. The preliminary success constitutes one of the few bright spots in the conservation of Guam's native fauna in recent years, and speaks to future opportunities to recover wildlife. In November 2010, sixteen Guam rails were released on Cocos Island , a 33 hectare atoll located 1 mile off the southern tip of Guam, as part of its reintroduction two decades after its extinction in

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1856-517: The breeding season. Guam rail numbers fell drastically due to predation by invasive brown treesnakes . The species is now being bred in captivity by the Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources on Guam, and at some mainland U.S. zoos . Since 1995, more than 100 rails have been introduced on the island of Rota in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands , in an attempt to establish

1914-585: The continuity of the Chamoru language. Other creative ways to incorporate and promote the Chamorro language have been found in the use of applications for smartphones, internet videos and television. From Chamorro dictionaries, to the most recent "Speak Chamorro" app, efforts are growing and expanding in ways to preserve and protect the Chamorro language and identity. On YouTube, a popular Chamorro soap opera Siha has received mostly positive feedback from native Chamorro speakers on its ability to weave dramatics,

1972-424: The decline of Guam's forests by trampling vegetation and rooting for food. In addition to this, feral pigs wallowing and deer thinning the forest canopy contribute to the ecosystem's disruption. These factors combined have contributed to altered soil properties, forest ecology, and decreases in groundcover. Feral cats have also proven to be a major barrier to successfully reintroducing the species to Guam. Following

2030-412: The extinction of these birds." A recent effort to introduce rails on Guam in a 22 hectare forested area concentrated on protecting the rails by limiting snakes using a combination of trapping and a perimeter barrier to reduce re-invasion by snakes. This endeavor allowed the tentative survival of several pairs of rails released into the area. Reproduction by the rails was reported in this control area on

2088-483: The first syllable of root). Chamorro is a predicate -initial head-marking language. It has a rich agreement system in the nominal and in the verbal domains. Chamorro is also known for its wh-agreement in the verb. The agreement morphemes agree with features (roughly the grammatical case feature) of the question phrase and replace the regular subject–verb agreement in transitive realis clauses: Ha 3sSA faʼgåsi wash si PND Juan Juan i

2146-554: The island in the 1970s and 1980s, respectively. The population declined severely from 1969 to 1973, and continued to decline until the mid 1980s. It was last seen in the wild in 1987. Zoologist Bob Beck , a wildlife supervisor with the Guam Department of Agriculture 's Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources, is credited with leading the efforts to capture the remaining wild Guam rails, Guam kingfishers, and other native birds to save them from extinction. His efforts to save

2204-519: The island, including mixed forest, savanna, grasslands, fern thickets, and agricultural areas. Individuals observed by the Guam Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources were noted as preferring edge habitats that provided good cover. Guam rails are secretive, fast birds. Though they are capable of a short bursts of flight, they seldom fly. It was found more frequently in savannas and scrubby mixed forest than in uniform tracts of mature forest. It

2262-762: The mainland United States . Beck's Guam rail breeding program initially began with just three zoos in the U.S.—the Bronx Zoo , the Philadelphia Zoo , and the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. The program proved to be successful, and was soon expanded to include other zoos. As of 2008, seventeen zoos now participate in the Guam rail breeding program, including: the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans ,

2320-756: The nearby Rota and Cocos islands. In 2019, they became the second bird species to be reclassified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature from Extinct in the Wild to Critically Endangered . Adult male and female plumage is primarily brown with barred black-and-white plumage on their underside. Their heads are brown with a grey stripe running above the eye and a medium-length grey bill. They have strong legs with long toes that help them walk over marshy ground. Their most common vocalizations are short "kip" notes, but also screeches during

2378-458: The newly released rails. The reintroduction proved to be successful, as evidence of breeding has been observed. This will provide a model environment to develop strategies for future reintroductions, as well as expertise in rodent and snake detection, eradication, and bio-security measures. Guam's symbolic bird is the Ko'ko'. Ko'ko' Road Race Weekend is hosted every year on Guam to raise awareness of

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2436-404: The oldest family members were fluent. Lack of exposure made it increasingly difficult to pick up Chamorro as a second language. Within a few generations, English replaced Chamorro as the language of daily life. There is a difference in the rate of Chamorro language fluency between Guam and the rest of the Marianas. On Guam the number of native Chamorro speakers has dwindled since the mid-1990s. In

2494-474: The rails have only lived in captivity on Guam, located at the Guam Department of Agriculture. Guam is an island covering about 132,230 acres. According to a 2013 survey, about 53% of the island is forested. The climate is tropical marine , with little change in temperature throughout the year and a dry season lasting from January until May. The rails were once distributed widely across most habitats on

2552-465: The region during World War II. After the war, when Guam was recaptured by the United States, American administrators of the island continued to impose "no Chamorro" restrictions in local schools, teaching only English and disciplining students for speaking their indigenous tongue. While these oppressive language policies were progressively lifted, Chamorro usage had substantially decreased. Subsequent generations were often raised in households where only

2610-452: The reintroduction of Guam rails at Andersen Air Force Base in 2006, feral cats killed all of the introduced birds within eight weeks. The species was once abundant, with an estimated population between 60,000 and 80,000 in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Nine of the eleven species of native forest-dwelling birds have been extirpated from Guam. Five of these were endemic at the species or subspecies level, and are now extinct. The Guam rail and

2668-447: The same plumage and characteristics. They are primarily brown, with a grey bill and tan-colored legs. The head and back are brown. It has a grey eye stripe and throat, a dark blackish breast with white barring, and the legs and beak are dark brown. Historically, the rail was only found on the island of Guam. Today, the rail is still found on Guam, though in captivity, with wild populations introduced on Rota and Cocos Islands. Since 1985,

2726-458: The snake decimated the populations of other native avifauna in Guam's forests. With less prey found in the trees, it took advantage of the nests of the Guam rail, found on the forest floor. It is unlikely the snakes could prey on the larger adult rails, instead feeding on the eggs and nestlings. Invasive ungulates, including feral pigs and Phillippine deer , destroy native forests and consequently, Guam rail habitat. Their behaviors contribute to

2784-412: The species and conservation efforts. Chamorro language Chamorro ( English: / tʃ ə ˈ m ɔːr oʊ / chə- MOR -oh ; endonym : Finuʼ Chamorro [Northern Mariana Islands] or Finoʼ CHamoru [Guam] /t​͡saˈmoɾu/ ) is an Austronesian language spoken by about 58,000 people, numbering about 25,800 on Guam and about 32,200 in the Northern Mariana Islands and elsewhere. It

2842-504: The steep, post-World War II decline of Chamorro language fluency. There is a long history of colonization of the Marianas, beginning with the Spanish colonization in 1668 and, eventually, the American acquisition of Guam in 1898 (whose hegemony continues to this day). This imposed power structures privileging the language of the region's colonizers. According to estimates, a large majority, as stated above (75%), maintained active knowledge of

2900-482: The time the United States captured the island during the Spanish–American War (there are no similar language fluency estimates for other areas of the Mariana Islands during this time). A century later, the 2000 U.S. Census showed that fewer than 20% of Chamorros living in Guam speak their heritage language fluently, and the vast majority of those were over the age of 55. A number of forces have contributed to

2958-422: The tropical marine ecosystems are close to true rain forests. The mesophytic ecosystem is also known as a semi-evergreen forest. It is found where there is a long dry season that has little rainfall. There is less vegetation than in a rainforest. There are only two tree stories; trees shed their leaves or have very small leaves. This provides the plants a way to conserve moisture. There are fewer epiphytes than

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3016-445: The use of Spanish and Chamorro was rapidly declining as a result of English pressure. Spanish influences in Chamorro exist due to three centuries of Spanish colonial rule. Many words in the Chamorro lexicon are of Latin etymological origin via Spanish, but the pronunciation of these loanwords has been nativized to the phonology of Chamorro, and their use conforms to indigenous grammatical structures. Some authors consider Chamorro

3074-399: The wet season. The ecosystems of the tropical marine climate have to adapt to the dry season. Plants during the dry season must conserve water/moisture. However, the extent of the adaptation depends much on the annual rainfall. Hygrophytic ecosystems occur when there is a short dry period with a few rain showers. The soil in this ecosystem holds adequate water for plant growth. Most of

3132-407: The wild. It was an effort to provide safe nesting areas for the rails, as well as a place for the public to see them in the wild. Before the reintroduction, rats were eradicated off the island, and the forest was further enhanced with native trees. A native lizard survey was conducted to make sure that the rails had enough food to eat. Monitor lizard populations were reduced to minimize their impacts on

3190-405: Was linguistically superficial. The bones of the Chamorro language remained intact.... In virtually all cases of borrowing, Spanish words were forced to conform to the Chamorro sound system.... While Spanish may have left a lasting mark on Chamorro vocabulary, as it did on many Philippine and South American languages, it had virtually no effect on Chamorro grammar.... The Japanese influence on Chamorro

3248-503: Was much greater than that of German but much less than Spanish. Once again, the linguistic influence was restricted exclusively to vocabulary items, many of which refer to manufactured objects...." In contrast, in the essays found in Del español al chamorro. Lenguas en contacto en el Pacífico (2009), Rafael Rodríguez-Ponga refers to modern Chamorro as a "mixed language" of "Hispanic-Austronesian" origins and estimates that approximately 50% of

3306-454: Was told (something) for a while'. Chamorro has many Spanish loanwords and other words have Spanish etymological roots (such as tenda 'shop/store' from Spanish tienda ), which may lead some to mistakenly conclude that the language is a Spanish creole , but Chamorro very much uses its loanwords in an Austronesian way ( bumobola 'playing ball ' from bola 'ball, play ball' with verbalizing infix -um- and reduplication of

3364-404: Was usually found in dense vegetation but it was also observed bathing or feeding along roadsides or forest edges. Its call is a loud, piercing whistle or series of whistles, usually given by two or more birds in response to a loud noise, the call of another rail, or other disturbances. Though individuals will respond almost invariably to the call of another rail, the species is generally silent. It

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