| Crested ibis | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Pelecaniformes |
| Family: | Threskiornithidae |
| Genus: | Nipponia Reichenbach, 1853 |
| Species: | N. nippon |
| Binomial name | |
| Nipponia nippon (Temminck, 1835) | |
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former natural range | |
| Synonyms[3] | |
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Thecrested ibis (Nipponia nippon), also known as theJapanese crested ibis,Asian crested ibis ortoki, is a large (up to 78.5 cm (30.9 in) long), white-plumagedibis ofpine forests, native to eastern Asia. Its head is partially bare, showing red skin, and it has a dense crest of white plumes on thenape. It is theonly member of thegenusNipponia.
They build theirnests at the tops of trees onhills usually overlooking their habitat.
Crested ibises usually eat insects, frogs, small fish and small animals.
At one time, the crested ibis nested in theRussian Far East,Japan, andMainland China, and was a non-breeding visitor to theKorean Peninsula andTaiwan. It has now disappeared from most of its former range, and the only natural (non-reintroduced) population occurs inShaanxi,China.[1]
The last wild crested ibis in Japan died in October 2003, with the remaining wild population found only inShaanxi Province of China, until the reintroduction of captive bred birds back into Japan in 2008. They were previously thought to be extinct in China as well, until their rediscovery in 1981.Extensivecaptive breeding programs have been developed by Japan and China to conserve the species. They are on China's State Protection List. In 2002, there were a total of 130 colonies in China. Northwest Shaanxi province's research center has a history of 26 crested ibis fledglings including artificial and natural incubation. On July 31, 2002, five out of seven crested ibis chicks hatched at an incubation center in northwest Shaanxi province. This was the highest ever recorded number of chicks that hatched.[4] The parents of the chicks were chosen from 60 ibis pairs raised at that research center.[5]
In the 1980s, the birds were decimated byoverhunting, theuse of pesticides, ongoinghabitat loss, their already small population size, their limitedrange, winterstarvation and persecution, which together brought theendangered species to the brink ofextinction.[6] The crested ibis has been listed in Appendix I of the conservation treatyCITES.
TheLondon Zoo had crested ibises from 1872 until 1873. OutsideChina, onlyJapan andSouth Korea currently keep the species.[citation needed]
On September 25, 2008, inSado, Niigata, the Sado Japanese Crested Ibis Preservation Center released 10 of the birds as part of its crested ibis restoration program, which aimed to introduce 60 ibises into the wild by 2015. It was the first time the bird has returned to the Japanese wild since 1981.[7]
On April 23, 2012, it was confirmed that three crested ibis chicks had hatched on Sado Island inNiigata Prefecture, the first time chicks had hatched in the wild in Japan in 36 years.[8][9]
On June 23, 2022, nearly five hundred toki returned to Sado, where the bird's delicate pink plumage and distinctive curved beak now drawtourists. They represent a rare conservation success story when one in eight bird species globally are threatened with extinction, and one which involved international diplomacy and an agricultural revolution on a small island off Japan's west coast.[10]
On the Korean Peninsula, the bird has not been present since it was last seen in 1979 near theKorean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). South Korea made efforts to restore the species after former Chinese PresidentHu Jintao delivered a pair of the birds as a present during a South Korea–China summit in 2008, and PresidentXi Jinping presented another pair in 2013. The restoration center inChangnyeong has bred more than 360 crested ibises so far. The South Korean government has released dozens of crested ibises into the wild to promote its efforts to preserve biological diversity.[11]
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