Over 100 baby crested ibises were born this year in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, bringing the total population of this endangered bird species to a record 400.
According to the Shaanxi Crested Ibis Protection and Observation Station in Yangxian County, 65 to 70 baby ibises were born in the wild, 40 in feeding plants and 20 in Louguantai Wild Animal Rescue Center.
Local zoologists attributed the ibis population growth to the ban on fertilizer application and timber felling in areas close to the species' natural habitat.
Distinguished by its red crest, gray plumage and hooked beak, the rare bird is now found only in China, mostly in mountainous areas in the Qinling Ranges of the northwest.
After a three-year nationwide survey, Chinese ornithologists discovered only seven of them in 1981.
The origin of the species has been traced back over 60 million years to large flocks formerly existing in most of what is now China, Japan and Germany.
(People?s Daily June 13, 2002)
