ADRIAN -- A small, green
and yellow songbird with a distinct white ring around its eye has become an
important part of Siena Heights University student Olivia Smith’s life.
Called the Saipan bridled
white-eye, the native of the Mariana Islands in the northern Pacific Ocean is
an endangered species thanks to the brown tree snake, introduced to Guam
shortly after World War II. The bird no longer exists on Guam and is found only
on three other Mariana islands.
Smith, a biology major at
Siena, has been studying the bridled white-eye at the Toledo Zoo, where nine of
the 24 members of the species in captivity live. The goal is to help the birds
successfully reproduce and raise offspring in captivity, a safeguard in case
the species goes extinct in the wild.
“What I’m focusing on is the
captive (bird) conservation effort,” Smith said.
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