HANGZHOU, May 29 (Xinhua) — On a quiet morning just lately, a 48.3-gram chick emerged from its egg at a crested ibis rescue and conservation base in Deqing, a water city in east China’s Zhejiang Province.
The tiny chick was the 1,000th crested ibis to be raised on the facility since its institution in 2008, marking a historic milestone for its conservationists.
It additionally constitutes one other chapter within the story of one of many world’s most exceptional wildlife comeback tales. Known because the “oriental gem” for its elegant look, the crested ibis was as soon as getting ready to complete extinction. Thanks to almost 20 years of technological innovation, ecological restoration and devoted conservation efforts, it has not solely survived, however thrived within the water cities of south China, establishing a brand new stronghold alongside its native habitat in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province.
RACE AGAINST EXTINCTION
The crested ibis, with its iconic crimson crest and lengthy black beak, was as soon as extensively distributed throughout East Asia and Russia’s Siberia. It was regarded as extinct in China till seven wild birds appeared in Shaanxi Province’s Yangxian County in 1981.
That discovery marked the beginning of China’s nationwide crested ibis conservation marketing campaign.
In 2008, as a part of China’s nationwide technique to develop the crested ibis’ habitat and guarantee its long-term survival, 5 pairs of crested ibises had been relocated from Shaanxi to Deqing. The formidable objective was to determine the primary ex-situ conservation inhabitants of crested ibis inhabitants in south China.
“Watching the population grow from those initial 10 birds to over 1,000 has been an emotional journey for all of us,” stated Qiu Guoqiang, a senior engineer on the base concerned within the undertaking because it began.
“Reaching the 1,000 mark is more than just a number — it signifies that the southern crested ibis population has entered a new stage of self-sustained, stable growth, with the wild population now accounting for more than half of the total.”
SCIENCE EMPOWERS CONSERVATION
Establishing a crested ibis inhabitants in south China — a area characterised by excessive humidity and frequent rainfall — posed distinctive challenges not seen within the birds’ native northern habitats. Initially, the conservation crew was confronted with a double dilemma: low fertilization charges and excessive chick mortality.
To overcome these hurdles, the Deqing base developed a complicated, replicable technology-driven conservation system. By adopting a “free pairing” technique — permitting ibises to decide on their very own mates — and optimizing their weight-reduction plan, the crew elevated the fertilization price from 26.3 % to 87 %.
Technicians additionally pioneered a way to restore broken eggs and established a full-cycle embryo monitoring system, which allows them to exactly alter temperature and humidity to avoid wasting poorly-developing embryos. These focused interventions have boosted the hatching survival price from a mere 33 % to roughly 97 %.
At the core of this success is a “smart management system” that digitizes the complete breeding and administration course of. “We have created exclusive electronic files for every single crested ibis,” Qiu stated. “Their banding numbers, bloodlines, breeding records, and health data are all digitized, which effectively prevents inbreeding and lays a solid scientific foundation for the long-term health of the population.”
Real-time monitoring covers the complete space — base and wild alike. A central video wall on the base connects to lots of of cameras throughout each enclosure, leaving no blind spots. Instead of strolling by way of cages for day by day checks, workers can watch the ibises’ habits, urge for food, and situation reside on display. The system flags emergencies, equivalent to misery, damage and aggressive habits, permitting for rapid motion. Even nesting websites dozens of kilometers away within the wild are linked, so workers can view breeding and charges of survival remotely. This sensible system has markedly boosted breeding effectivity, minimize administration dangers, and guarded the birds’ well being.
Beyond technological improvements, the bottom has performed a number one function in drafting China’s first nationwide customary for crested ibis conservation, which was formally carried out in 2025, offering a standardized playbook for the species’ restoration.
SETTING A GLOBAL MODEL
The success in Deqing has turned the small county right into a nationwide hub for crested ibis conservation. Today, it is among the nation’s largest synthetic breeding and seed supply bases, sending high-quality breeding stock of the fowl to assist rebuild populations in different Chinese provinces equivalent to Hunan, Jiangsu, and Sichuan.
This native success is a microcosm of China’s broader achievements in saving the crested ibis.
Since the preliminary discovery of simply seven wild birds in Yangxian County, relentless native conservation efforts have helped develop their home distribution to fifteen provinces, with secure populations additionally established overseas.
As of 2025, the worldwide crested ibis inhabitants has rebounded to over 11,000, with greater than 7,000 of them thriving in China.
China has additionally prolonged its conservation efforts to neighboring Japan and the Republic of Korea by sharing birds, serving to these nations re-establish their very own ibis populations and stopping the species from going extinct domestically.
These efforts have made the crested ibis a logo of diplomatic friendship and cross-border cooperation in biodiversity conservation.
“The comeback story of the crested ibis proves that with the right combination of technology, policy support, and respect for nature, humanity can rewrite the ending of an extinction story,” Qiu stated.