Crested ibis population surges 1,000-fold over past four decades

The population of crested ibis, a species that had once been on the edge of extinction, is bouncing back.

Photo taken on Aug. 2, 2020 shows a crested ibis flying in Yangxian County, northwest China's Shaanxi Province. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang)

There were over 7,000 such birds around the world as of the end of 2020, up from merely seven when the species was rediscovered deep in the Qinling Mountain in northwest China’s Shaanxi province 40 years ago.

Li Changming, an official with the management bureau of the Hanzhong Crested Ibis National Nature Reserve, Shaanxi Province, introduced that the bureau had flooded and maintained paddy fields totaling 1,500 mu (100 hectares) in 11 villages that have witnessed frequent visits from the birds as of the end of November. He said they will put 3,000 kilograms of loaches in these fields, so as to make sure that the crested ibises can live through the winter and further ensure the successful propagation of the species.

Senior engineer Zhang Yueming of the bureau noted that the crested ibis is a species that indicates the conditions of the wider ecological environment, and so the protection of the species is critical to the protection of the entire local ecosystem.

Thanks to years of efforts, the distribution of crested ibises has been constantly expanded from Shaanxi to many other provinces around the country. To date, seven artificial breeding bases have been built for the species across China, and wild populations have been observed in Zhejiang and Henan provinces.

In March this year, images of the bird were captured in Fuxian county, Yan’an, Shaanxi Province by photography enthusiasts, which means that the habitat of the species has once again been expanded successfully by over 160 kilometers northward.