Crested ibises return to Japan

“Crested ibis are being reintroduced to the Japanese mainland, where they were extirpated in the 1970s,” notes The Doomslayer.

The Associated Press reports:

Eight crested ibises were released into the wild in a north-central Japanese town, decades after the birds went extinct in the country.

The endangered birds took off from each of their wooden cages at a ceremony Sunday in Hakui city in the Noto region, where they were last seen in the wild.

Residents cheered when the birds soared into the sky the moment Crown Prince Akishino, his wife Kiko and other officials cut a ribbon around the cages.

The eight birds have been raised at a conservation center on Sado Island in the neighboring prefecture of Niigata following a successful captive-breeding program. Ten more birds are waiting to be released…

The birds went extinct on the Honshu main island in the 1970s, threatened by overhunting and environmental degradation. The last remaining Japanese native ibis died in 2003 on Sado Island.

Red-necked ostriches have been introduced to Saudi Arabia to replace similar birds that went extinct there.

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The population of the critically endangered Siberian crane has risen by 50%.

The Little Bustard, “a heavy-bodied grassland bird native to Eurasia,” is making a comeback in Kyrgyzstan after nearly being wiped out during the Communist Soviet Union’s rule over Kyrgyzstan.

Brazil’s rarest parrots have made a comeback, avoiding extinction.

Snub-nosed monkeys are making a comeback in China.

Amur leopards are making a comeback in Russia’s Far East, multiplying five-fold.