HANGZHOU, May 29 (Xinhua) -- On a quiet morning recently, a 48.3-gram chick emerged from its egg at a crested ibis rescue and conservation base in Deqing, a water town in east China's Zhejiang Province.
The tiny chick was the 1,000th crested ibis to be raised at the facility since its establishment in 2008, marking a historic milestone for its conservationists.
It also constitutes another chapter in the tale of one of the world's most remarkable wildlife comeback stories. Known as the "oriental gem" for its elegant appearance, the crested ibis was once on the brink of total extinction. Thanks to nearly two decades of technological innovation, ecological restoration and dedicated conservation efforts, it has not only survived, but thrived in the water towns of south China, establishing a new stronghold alongside its native habitat in northwest China's Shaanxi Province.
RACE AGAINST EXTINCTION
The crested ibis, with its iconic red crest and long black beak, was once widely distributed across East Asia and Russia's Siberia. It was thought to be extinct in China until seven wild birds appeared in Shaanxi Province's Yangxian County in 1981.
That discovery marked the start of China's national crested ibis conservation campaign.
In 2008, as part of China's national strategy to expand the crested ibis' habitat and ensure its long-term survival, five pairs of crested ibises were relocated from Shaanxi to Deqing. The ambitious goal was to establish the first ex-situ conservation population of crested ibis population in south China.
"Watching the population grow from those initial 10 birds to over 1,000 has been an emotional journey for all of us," said Qiu Guoqiang, a senior engineer at the base involved in the project since it started.
"Reaching the 1,000 mark is more than just a number -- it signifies that the southern crested ibis population has entered a new stage of self-sustained, stable growth, with the wild population now accounting for more than half of the total."
SCIENCE EMPOWERS CONSERVATION
Establishing a crested ibis population in south China -- a region characterized by high humidity and frequent rainfall -- posed unique challenges not seen in the birds' native northern habitats. Initially, the conservation team was confronted with a double dilemma: low fertilization rates and high chick mortality.
To overcome these hurdles, the Deqing base developed a sophisticated, replicable technology-driven conservation system. By adopting a "free pairing" strategy -- allowing ibises to choose their own mates -- and optimizing their diet, the team increased the fertilization rate from 26.3 percent to 87 percent.
Technicians also pioneered a technique to repair damaged eggs and established a full-cycle embryo monitoring system, which enables them to precisely adjust temperature and humidity to save poorly-developing embryos. These targeted interventions have boosted the hatching survival rate from a mere 33 percent to approximately 97 percent.
At the core of this success is a "smart management system" that digitizes the entire breeding and management process. "We have created exclusive electronic files for every single crested ibis," Qiu said. "Their banding numbers, bloodlines, breeding records, and health data are all digitized, which effectively prevents inbreeding and lays a solid scientific foundation for the long-term health of the population."
Real-time monitoring covers the entire area -- base and wild alike. A central video wall at the base connects to hundreds of cameras across every enclosure, leaving no blind spots. Instead of walking through cages for daily checks, staff can watch the ibises' behavior, appetite, and condition live on screen. The system flags emergencies, such as distress, injury and aggressive behavior, allowing for immediate action. Even nesting sites dozens of kilometers away in the wild are linked, so staff can view breeding and rates of survival remotely. This smart system has markedly boosted breeding efficiency, cut management risks, and protected the birds' health.
Beyond technological innovations, the base has played a leading role in drafting China's first national standard for crested ibis conservation, which was officially implemented in 2025, providing a standardized playbook for the species' recovery.
SETTING A GLOBAL MODEL
The success in Deqing has turned the small county into a national hub for crested ibis conservation. Today, it is one of the country's largest artificial breeding and seed source bases, sending high-quality breeding stock of the bird to help rebuild populations in other Chinese provinces such as Hunan, Jiangsu, and Sichuan.
This local success is a microcosm of China's broader achievements in saving the crested ibis.
Since the initial discovery of just seven wild birds in Yangxian County, relentless local conservation efforts have helped expand their domestic distribution to 15 provinces, with stable populations also established abroad.
As of 2025, the global crested ibis population has rebounded to over 11,000, with more than 7,000 of them thriving in China.
China has also extended its conservation efforts to neighboring Japan and South Korea by sharing birds, helping these countries re-establish their own ibis populations and preventing the species from going extinct locally.
These efforts have made the crested ibis a symbol of diplomatic friendship and cross-border cooperation in biodiversity conservation.
"The comeback story of the crested ibis proves that with the right combination of technology, policy support, and respect for nature, humanity can rewrite the ending of an extinction story," Qiu said. ■
