r/Awwducational 16d ago

Verified The Okinawa rail is Japan's only flightless bird — found exclusively on the island of Okinawa. Before nightfall, it uses its powerful clawed feet to climb trees, where it sleeps to avoid nocturnal-hunting pit vipers. In the morning, it drops back down in a graceless fluttering of wings.

Post image
1.1k Upvotes

15 comments sorted by

27

u/IdyllicSafeguard 16d ago

There have long been rumours of a cryptic creature living in the forests of northern Okinawa Island. A sound recording in 1964, a sighting in the early 70s, a corpse in '73 and a photograph in '75 — for years the creature eluded capture. Eventually, this mystery attracted the attention of an ornithological research institute in Tokyo. A team from the institute officially confirmed the creature's existence in 1978 and after catching several live specimens, it was described as an entirely new species to science; the Okinawa rail.

The Okinawa rail lives only on a single island; Okinawa Island — a part of Japan's southern Ryukyu Island Chain. On this subtropical island, the rail inhabits the Yanbaru area, which covers the northern third of Okinawa, more specifically in the Yanbaru Forest.

To escape dangerous nocturnal predators, like the local habu pit viper, the rail uses its powerful legs and toes to climb trees — since it cannot fly — where it sleeps out the night.

While adults escape to arboreal safety, their eggs remain on the ground in nests of loose grasses and leaves — and probably in some considerable danger. The fuzzy black chicks that do hatch soon begin to stumble about after their mum and dad, who both care for the young.

One local name for the Okinawa rail, Agachaa, translates to "a sudden fright". Although the rail itself isn't very scary — only being some 30 cm (11.8 in) long — its habit of sprinting suddenly across paths and roads, or crashing out of trees in the morning, might be startling enough to inspire the nickname. Alternatively, its calls, which sound like shrill screams and clattering laughter, might be its most frightening feature.

The rail eats a varied forest-floor diet, but it's particularly fond of snails. It brings them to a large rock, upon which it cracks open their shells, and then eats their gooey insides. Broken shells often pile up near these escargot dining sites.

26

u/IdyllicSafeguard 16d ago

20,000-year-old fossils of this rail have been uncovered in southern Okinawa, suggesting that the species once ranged across the whole island, but has since been pushed into the wilder north.

While the island of Okinawa is naturally absent of mammalian predators like foxes and weasels, humans have introduced stray dogs, feral cats, rats, and, more recently, mongooses.

Seventeen small Indian mongooses were intentionally released onto Okinawa Island in 1910, in a bid to combat the invasive rodents and native pit vipers. The mongooses reached the rail's last hideout, the Yanbaru Forest, in the 1990s, with populations peaking at around 30,000 mongooses.

Faced with nocturnal predators that it had no defences against, the once exclusively nocturnal rail started becoming increasingly diurnal, only to encounter the feral dogs that hunted by day.

Another threat to the rail is that of becoming roadkill. The increasing number of roads, coupled with the rail's need to cross them, has caused not a few accidents.

At the time of the Okinawa rail's discovery, the estimated number of individuals was 2,000. By 2005, less than 25 years later, the population had fallen to some 700 rails and it was officially designated as a 'critically endangered' species. As of a 2020 IUCN assessment, the total number of mature rails sits at 480 individuals and is believed to be decreasing.

You can read more about this elusive rail — the efforts to save it from extinction and its ties to the Okinawan people — on my website here!

13

u/dobgreath 16d ago

Humans find something magical and immediately ruin it. 30,000 mongooses, are you kidding me???

5

u/RegretfulCreature 15d ago

Honestly. Habitats are so fragile. It seems like everything humans do to try and fix a situation just makes it worse. I'm happy we're learning more about habitat restoration today, but that still doesn't change the fact so many mistakes like this are still being made.

5

u/maybesaydie 15d ago

Another issue for the birds during the 20th Century was the fighting on Okinawa during WW2. In addition to the casualties incurred from American bombing campaigns Japanese soldiers, cut off from supplies and rations by the fighting captured and ate an unknown number of birds some of which were known to be flightless.

My source for this is the YouTube channel World War Two.

6

u/IdyllicSafeguard 15d ago

You're probably thinking of the Wake Island rail. It was the only native land bird on an atoll known as Wake Atoll/Island in the middle of the Pacific. This atoll was occupied by the Japanese in 1944 when a U.S. blockade cut off supplies to thousands of soldiers there, who then ate the endemic rails. The species went extinct in 1945.

2

u/maybesaydie 15d ago

That's the one.

7

u/domdomburg 16d ago

They’re called “Yanbaru Kuina” in Japanese.
Very cute.

4

u/moo422 16d ago

Okinawa Rail sounds like a train boardgame.

4

u/travoltaswinkinbhole 15d ago

So he doesn’t fly but he can fall with style?

2

u/Missy_Baseball2911 16d ago

There are few things funnier than watching a bird run. Like Tina from Bob’s Burgers, just faster.🤣

1

u/AutoModerator 16d ago

Don't forget to include a source for your post! Please link your source in a comment on your post thread. Your source cannot be a personal blog or non scientific news site, and must include citations/references. Wikipedia is allowed, but it is not exempt from displaying citations. If you have questions you can contact the moderators with this link

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/ElSquibbonator 3d ago

Minor correction: the Okinawa rail actually can fly, though not very well and not for long distances. It is believed to be in the process of losing its capacity to fly, and Wikipedia describes the rail as "almost flightless".