The island of Rota has the distinction of being the only place on earth where the åga now can be found in the wild. More known as the Mariana Crow, the åga is a strong, resilient member of the genus Corvus, a family of birds which includes crows, ravens, jackdaws, and rooks.

The oldest known åga lived for at least 18 years. It is a territorial bird—fervently defending its nesting area from intruders by calling loudly, hammering its bill on branches, and even by breaking branches and tearing leaves off trees.

And, like the åga, a team of researchers, of the Mariana Crow Recovery Project, a research program administered by Dr. Renee Ha and Dr. Sarah Faegre from the University of Washington, is also passionately working to bring back the population of these extremely intelligent birds.

“The åga has been on Rota for more than two million years,” project crew leader Henry Fandel said. “It is well understood that adding or removing members from an ecological community can disrupt a balance that threatens the community or makes it more susceptible to disturbance.”

Fandel is one of 10 researchers who are on the island now, to document the trend of the åga population since 2005, to study factors contributing to the decline of the bird, to release to the wild captive-reared birds, and to conduct continuous outreach in the community and schools in Rota to ensure the success of the recovery project.

“Islands, especially small islands with their small wildlife populations, are known for hosting ecosystems that are especially prone to disturbance. Maintaining biodiversity and recovering endangered populations that are longtime members of Rota’s ecological community gives the local ecosystem it’s best chance at stability.”

“This is good for the ecosystem itself, but more importantly, it’s good for the people who depend on it.”

While, according to Fandel, they have never had a chance to officially study the ways the åga benefit Rota’s ecosystem, based on the bird’s diet and behavior, a strong åga population provides significant top-down predator control of prey communities such as insects, rats, wasps, spiders, and lizards, as well as in seed dispersal for åhgao, fagot, and tålisai trees.

Wiping out the 'Kill the Bird' stigma

“On Rota, [for] an individual [age] 40 and above, when you say ‘Kill the Bird,’ they know that it pertains to åga,” shared Cris Ogo, Indigenous Affairs Office program manager, in an interview with Saipan Tribune.

Ogo had a chance to go to Rota recently to conduct a forum discussing the establishment of a National Park Service unit on the island, where he met both Fandel and Faegre. Ogo, at the time, requested that the researchers present their study before the Rota Mayor’s Office, the municipal council, and dignitaries to promote a better understanding of their goal to save the bird.

According to Ogo, in the late ’90s when agricultural land permits were issued on Rota, some land permittees were told that they cannot enter the property due to encroachment of the åga habitat, where the people opposed the restriction.

The stigma still carries until today, he added, and stressed that this is why there is a need to conduct an extensive educational outreach on why the åga must be protected.

“For me and after visiting the åga holding pen, the hatchery and listening to Dr. Sarah’s presentation. I understood the need to protect the population of this endangered species. This process of touring the facilities and listening to the 45-minute presentation will definitely lower the stigma of ‘Kill the Bird.’”

“The community of Rota needs more information about the need of protecting endangered species. I think there is not enough educational awareness on this subject. Educational awareness is the missing link to better understand the åga project.”

Ogo stressed that the decline of the åga population on Rota needs to be observed to prevent further decline of the species, especially with Rota being the only island now where the bird species can be found in the wild.

The community can help

“One of the things we look forward to the most is continuing to strengthen the bonds between the research project and the community of Rota,” Fandel shared.

Throughout the project, the researchers have been working closely with, and are thankful to land owners who have given them permission to pass through their land, to get to the deeper parts of the forests where the birds can be found.

While the pandemic has affected the education and outreach initiatives regarding the åga, with visits to schools or classrooms not as easy to set up as it has been in the past, the Mariana Crow Recovery Project team has been figuring out creative ways on how they can be of service to the community.

In addition, they also welcome all aspiring wildlife biologists from the CNMI and Guam to apply for open positions on their project, which they are looking to fill between March and June 2021.

The researchers are slated to release 13 additional birds out to the wild around this time, on top of the 23 that they have already released since 2018—a serious accomplishment indeed to combat the decline, and help rebuild the åga population.

With the forest and the wildlife populations on Rota extremely valuable to the community, truly, as Fandel stressed, it is very important work to maintain the integrity of Rota’s ecosystem.

To get updates on the Åga Project, visit the Mariana Crow Recovery Project page on https://www.facebook.com/MarianaCrowRecoveryProject/.

Rota is working to bring back the population of one of its threatened species, the åga, more commonly known as the Mariana Crow.

Saipan Tribune went to Rota and sat with Henry Fandel and Dylan Hubl, crew leaders of the University of Washington’s Mariana Crow Recovery Project, or the Åga Project, who have been working with the island community of Rota, to protect the åga.

They are contracted by the Department of Land and Natural Resources, through its Division of Fish and Wildlife, to monitor the åga, through nest searching and surveys, to keep track of the trend over time whether its population is increasing, decreasing, or remaining stable.

“Our major goal is to keep track of the åga population so that we know how imperiled it is,” Fandel said. “Over time, in the past, it has been declining really rapidly. We have been tasked with trying to figure out why that is.”

Endemic to the Marianas, the åga originally were found only in Guam and Rota. They are no longer in Guam, making its population on Rota even more important as it is the last remaining population of the crow.

The åga is a member of the Rota ecological community, where each member provides services to the island’s ecosystem in general.

“So this fight is a fight to preserve the ecological identity of the Marianas,” Fandel added.

“The more we’re able to do that, the more intact things will be, the more what makes the Marianas unique will remain, what makes it function ecologically will remain. These are all very good things for people.”

Their team is currently doing a release of first-year birds, or 1-year-old birds. They collect eggs and nestlings which are then raised for a year and a half by a Rota-stationed team from the San Diego Zoo, before they get released in the wild.

“We released seven birds in the end of November and then [this] year, we are having another cohort, which will be the third release,” Hubl said.

“We did one prior last year. That was 10 birds in 2018, 13 birds in 2019, and then 13 or 14, this year. These are birds that mostly came from wild eggs that were then reared in captivity.”

The åga is a member of the Corvid family which is known for being extremely intelligent, which makes them academically of interest to people who are into studying animal intelligence.

One of the main foundations of the Åga Project is the monitoring of nests because that leads to banding opportunities, which adds data points to the team’s data set of known birds.

This data helps in tracking the population of the åga, particularly where they are going, who they are associating with, and if they are nesting.

The team is particularly grateful to the people of Rota, particularly the land owners who have allowed them to conduct surveys in their properties.

“We very much appreciate the land owners that have allowed us to come on to their properties and allowed us to do surveys. It is very helpful to the project. Land owners that have taken us in and let us use their property. It’s been amazing,” Hubl said.

“This project is totally a partnership,” Fandel stressed, emphasizing that while their team from the University of Washington work in collaboration with the San Diego Zoo, it is the people of Rota who are helping them access the places that they need to, to help save the åga.

As the team looks forward to yet another full year of nest searching, monitoring, and bird release, Fandel could not stress enough the pride of having the åga, and the significance of bringing back up its population.

“The åga is Rota’s crow. It is the Marianas Crow. It doesn’t belong anywhere else. It is the bird for the people of Rota, for the people of the Marianas,” said Fandel.

To get updates on the Åga Project, visit https://www.facebook.com/MarianaCrowRecoveryProject/.