Crested Ibis

Nipponibis ( Nipponia nippon)

The Nipponibis ( Nipponia nippon, Japaneseトキ,朱 鹭,鸨, toki; Chinese:朱 鹮,朱 鹭,红 鹤), also known as Japanese or Japanese Ibis Schopfibis called, belongs to the family of Ibises and spoonbills ( Threskiornithidae ) and lives in East Asia.

Appearance and way of life

The Nipponibis reaches a length of 74 cm from beak to tail and a wingspan of 1.40 m. On the head there is a distinct fan-shaped hood made ​​of white feathers. The plumage is also white with orange - pink tones. The face and legs are red. The beak is black. He lives in swamp forests at an altitude 470-1300 m. Its diet consists of small fish, frogs, snails and other molluscs and flow of beetles.

Distribution, population and vulnerability

The Japanese Ibis came earlier before in Russia, Korea, northern China, Taiwan, Manchuria and Japan, brooding preferably in old forests near wetlands or rice fields. Some of the populations were site- faithful, others moved away for the winter to southern China. At the beginning of the 20th century Nipponibis was relatively frequent, then began a steady decline that brought the birds to the brink of extinction. Already towards the end of the 19th century, the Nipponibis became increasingly more hunted because of its long white feather tuft. Feathers like those of the Nipponibis were processed in the fashion industry to Hutschmuck especially from a hunting for plumes were a number of birds affected. When Nipponibis hunting track was particularly high, because he not only delivered very nice pens, but at the same time moving relatively slowly on the ground and in the air and hunters thus an easy target bot.

In many parts of the range of Nipponibis it came during the 20th century to a human population explosion, which led to increased stress on the habitats of the Nipponibis as agricultural land and settlements. The bird was indeed made ​​in Japan in 1934 under protection, but it remained largely ineffective because its habitat was not protected equally. Political upheavals such as the Chinese Great Leap Forward resulted on the Asian mainland to extensive habitat loss.

Due to the destruction of its habitat through deforestation, draining of swamps and the system of rice terraces in the numbers fell so dramatically that there were only 8 copies on the Japanese island of Sado and some in the demilitarized zone in Korea in the early 1970s. In order to save the species from extinction final, was built on Sado protection and rearing center, where you could explore the habits of ibises. However, the first breeding program proved to be a failure. All died except one bird within a few weeks, probably because they were fed false.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences in China, meanwhile, led a search for possibly existing Nipponibissen by. The search lasted over three years, the researchers covered a distance a distance of 50,000 kilometers. In 1981 it was discovered in the remote Shaanxi province on a mountainside two breeding pairs with a total of three chicks. A little later a few more pairs were found in the area. The Chinese Ministry of Forestry had it immediately near a conservation station set up in the immediate area around the nesting areas, the felling of trees, the use of firearms and the foraging area of the use of fertilizers and pesticides was banned. In 1987, 51 nesting trees were declared state property and put under strict protection. Under the auspices of the Beijing zoo Nipponibisse were also successfully bred in captivity. In 2002 it was estimated the stock of the Chinese population in the wild on 140th In Japan, the last hatched in the wild Schopfibis died in 2003 on the island of Sado. 2008 10 hatched in captivity Nipponibisse were released on Sado.

Others

• The Nipponibis 1934 was declared a Japanese Natural Monument. It is the prefecture of Niigata bird and the bird city of Sado and Wajima.
• In 2005, the Japanese pop group Dohatsuten one of their albums Nipponia Nippon named with a Tokisymbol on the plate logo.
• Since 1982, the national bird of the German Nipponibis Birds association Brehm Fund for International Bird Protection is eV.