A rare bird species that was declared extinct four decades ago is once again thriving in the wild thanks to hardworking animal conservation workers.

Guam Rail is a rare bird native to Guam, a Pacific Island. While the species had been flourishing on the island in the past, an accidental introduction of a predator decimated its numbers until there were only two dozen left.

After the Guam Rail was pronounced “extinct in the wild” by IUCN, hardworking conservation activists had been working on repopulating the species through various breeding programs.

Some 40 years later, over 200 members of the species have been introduced to a nearby island called Rota where the non-flying birds are safe from their predators.

As CNN reported, the birds’ existence began facing threats after the island of Guam was taken by the Japanese during WWII.

Following the United States’ liberation of the island, the birds’ predators, brown tree snakes, were accidentally introduced and started working on decimating the native bird species.

Decades later, ten out of twelve of Guam’s native species were wiped out by the snakes whereas only two dozen Rails were found on the island.

To give the birds a fighting chance at reviving their species, wildlife biologist Suzanne Medina and her team took the rescued birds into their care as the Guam Rails were declared “extinct in the wild” back in 1981.

It took Medina and her team years to discover how to successfully breed the birds in captivity.

Fortunately, their efforts paid off and the team was able to introduce hundreds of birds back into the wild nearly forty years after they were pronounced extinct.

As Medina explained, they transferred approximately 200 Rails to the snake-free island of Rota whereas another 80 or so are living on the Cocos Island.

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Replaced!