Crested ibises meet the public in Guangzhou bird park

Eight crested ibises, a bird once considered to be extinct, made their public appearance at a bird park in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, on Wednesday.

The birds were born at the Chimelong Bird Park early this year, after the park first introduced two pairs of crested ibises from Zhejiang province in 2011.

Crested ibises once lived in a large population across East China, Japan, Russia and North Korea. But they were hardly found in most of these areas due to the worsening living environment in the last three decades, according to Ye Guanfeng, secretary-general of the Guangdong provincial association of wildlife and plant conservation.

China first discovered seven wild crested ibises in May 1981 in Yangxian, Shaanxi province.

"However, the population of the endangered bird species has been growing in recent years thanks to years of conservation," said Ye.

Seven crested ibises were also introduced from Japan to the Chimelong Birds Park in November 2017, helping increase the breeding and population of the birds in China.

There have been more than 150 crested ibises living in the park, the largest population of the endangered bird species in South China.