Yambaru Kuina no Mori (Okinawa Rail Ecology Center)

The Yanbaru kuina lives only in northern Okinawa and is the official symbol of Kunigami village. The bird is flightless and runs at up to 40 km/h. It springs from the ground into low branches to roost and cracks Yanbaru snails open on rocks. Its old local name, agachaa, means jumpy.

Fossils show the rail once lived across the whole island. Forest loss and the mongoose, brought in during 1910 to hunt habu, pushed it into the north, where numbers may have fallen to about 700 before trapping teams began clearing the predator. The centre shows one bird at a time, and the individual on display changes over the years.