NE China's Jilin builds all-round protection system for endangered Chinese mergansers

A Chinese merganser and its young offspring. (Photo/People's Daily Online)

Northeast China's Jilin Province has recently established an all-round protection system for Chinese mergansers, an endangered bird species.

By integrating Chinese mergansers into a list of wildlife under key protection, the province is striving to turn its safeguarding of Chinese mergansers into a model for carrying out such work in support of other rare and endangered species.

Also known as scaly-sided mergansers, Chinese mergansers are under first-class state protection in China. The species’ population now numbers less than 2,000 pairs across the world. Among them, 160 pairs of the species are located in China and with 145 pairs in Jilin alone.