The crested ibis (scientific name Nipponia nippon), also known as the Asian or Japanese crested ibis, or toki, is a species cherished by the peoples of northeast Asia, who consider it the “bird of good fortune”. That belief did not, however, help the large bird with the distinctive red head and white plumes on the nape of the neck, and by the late 1970s, the crested ibis was practically extinct in its former range of the Russian Far East, Japan, and China, according to BirdLife International. The reasons were many, including environmental degradation caused by “development”, the increased use of chemicals and pesticides in agriculture, and illegal hunting, according to Akio Nakajima, a researcher from the Institute of Human and Environmental Symbiosis Research in Dokkyo University, Japan.
In 1981, after three years of searches throughout China, researchers found seven wild crested ibises, four adults and three chicks, in the Qinling mountains in northwest China’s Shaanxi province. That same year, the five crested ibises remaining in the wild in Japan were captured in an attempt to breed the species in captivity, but that effort did not meet with success.
China, however, fared better, and after years of breeding and conservation, the global population of the birds has increased to over 10,000 today, according to the Japanese researcher, who wrote an article recently for China’s People’s Daily.
According to the latest available assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species, which was carried out in 2018, there were 330 mature individuals in the wild, the population was growing, and the species was classified as “endangered”, no longer “critically endangered” or “extinct in the wild”.
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According to Nakajima, China’s protection of crested ibises serves as a global model for saving a species. Significant progress was made through collaborative efforts by China and Japan. From 1998 to 2018, China gave seven crested ibises to Japan, helping the country revive the species. As a result, the number of captive crested ibises living on Sado island, Niigata prefecture, has been rising steadily.
Nakajima has been engaged in ibis conservation, research, and re-wilding programmes on Sado Island since 2000. That was the year China gifted a female ibis named Mei Mei to Japan. Mei Mei mated with Yuu Yuu, the offspring of Yang Yang and You You, both of whom were gifted by China in 1999. Mei Mei and Yuu Yuu went on to have many offspring together.
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In 2007, Japan returned 13 young crested ibises to China, all descendants of Mei Mei and now protected in the Dongzhai National Nature Reserve in Luoshan county, Xinyang city, Henan province. The reserve has so far released more than 100 crested ibises into the wild.
According to historical documents, the crested ibis was a migratory bird with a widespread presence across northeast Asia. The conservationists’ fond hope is that some day in the near future, with the collaborative efforts of the peoples of the northeast Asian countries, these “birds of good fortune” will restore their migratory range and serve as symbols of friendly exchanges.
