Endangered Bird ‘Crested Ibis’ Returns to South Korea after 40 Years of Extinction

An endangered species of bird known as ‘Crested Ibis’ is recently reintroduced to the wild by South Korean authorities four decades after it went into extinction on the Korean peninsula. Crested ibis bird is listed as South Korea’s National Monument number 198, which was last seen in the wild around the Demilitarized Zone, which divides the two Koreas in the year 1979.

Though China and Japan are also part of the Crested Ibis’s natural habitation range, but was driven to the edge of extinction partially because of the use of pesticide on its food sources, though a captive breeding programs was launched in South Korea but was not successful leading to the end of the species in South Korea since 1979.

In the year 2013 Chinese President Xi Jinping donated two male crested ibises to South Korea. Around that time, the Crested Ibis Restoration Center was established near Upo Wetland, which is a complex of natural wetlands. With systematic planning, maintenance and breeding, the center now has 363 crested ibises in its captive breeding.

Thus South Korean environment ministry and Changnyeong County decided to release the bird into the wild to mark their reintroduction there, accordingly, 40 crested ibises bird were selected for the release into the wild of the wetland in South Gyeongsang Province, 350 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

The birds were released into the wetland on World Biodiversity Day and World Wetlands Day on May 22 every year in South Korea.

Ahead of the release, the rehabilitation authorities have prepared feeding and breeding grounds for crested ibises around the Wetland and its surrounding areas to help the birds in their successful adaptation. PS transmitters were also attached to the departing birds for a closer monitoring of their daily activities.

The Latin name of the species ‘Crested Ibis’ is Nipponia Nippon, but is also known as the Japanese Crested ibis and is best known in the South Korea because of a popular children’s song, which was composed in the 1920s, at a time when the Korean Peninsula was under Japanese colonial rule.

The song describes the sound of the bird’s call as a sad reminder of a lost mother and was therefore banned by the Japanese authorities, which saw the song as a form of anti-colonial resistance. The song again became popular after Korea regained its independence in the year 1945.