Science fact of the day: Guam Rails can only fly short distances

Guam Rails are nearly flightless birds that can only fly for distances of 3 – 10 ft. at a time.

This is likely because there were no natural predators in their original environment.

The birds are native to Guam but due to predators like snakes that were introduced to the area by trade ships, they currently only live in the wild on the island of Rota as an introduced population.