A fire has burned for three days in the wetlands of the Zhalong
Nature Reserve in northeast China's Heilongjiang
Province, the seasonal home of many of China's red-crowned
cranes.
More than 21,333 hectares of the wetlands have already been
consumed by the flames. Thick smoke could be seen about 30
kilometers away.
Firefighters have not yet been able to bring the blaze under
control.
Ma Lin, an employee of the nature reserve, said that red-crowned
cranes come to the area every spring for breeding, but they might
not come this year because of the fire.
The investigation into the cause of the fire is still under
way.
Established in 1979, the Zhalong Nature Reserve covers an area
of 210,000 hectares and was designed as a state-level nature
reserve for the red-crowned crane.
The red-crowned crane, or Grus japonensis, is a critically
endangered species under Class I protection in China. It is also
listed on CITES appendix 1, with a total world population estimated
at 1,500 in the wild with another 700 in zoos around the world,
according to the Smithsonian Institution's National Zoological
Park.
Approximately 220 of the birds normally inhabit Zhalong.
(Xinhua News Agency March 24, 2005)