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)