The present status of Japanese Crested Ibis Nipponia nippon and Japanese White Stork Ciconia ciconia boyciana in Continental Asia

Abstract

This article describes the present situation in which the two species, Nipponia nippon and Ciconia ciconia boyciana, seem to subsist in eastern parts of the Asian Continent, the description here being based on a number of papers and reports published recently in the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, and Korea.
The Japanese Crested Ibis (Nipponia nippon) seems to have died out in the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. The last observation record in the Soviet Union (in Kliuch Zakharofskii District) dates from 1940, and that in the People's Republic of China (in Yungchi, Shensi Province) from 1957: and since then no observation has been reported in either country.
1. In the Korean peninsula, however, this species seems to be still surviving. Some individuals were occasionally observed even after 1965, and the most recent observation report dates from 1974. These individuals may have strayed off from their breeding areas in the north down to the plains in the central parts of the peninsula. The exact location of their breeding area is unknown, but most probably in seems to be somewhere on the southern slopes of the Changpaek Mountains.
2. The Japanese White Stork (Ciconia ciconia boyciana) is still breeding in large numbers within the territory of the Soviet Union. Their habitat is a vast area stretching from east to west over 1, 000km (from the valley of the Zeya River to the coast of the Japan Sea) and from north to south over 600km (from Lake Bolon on the lower Amur to Lake Khanka in the south of Primorskaya). In the People's Republic of China, some individuals may be found on the left bank of the Ussuri. During the wintertime, only a very small number of individuals migrate to the Korean peninsula and to Japan to winter there, while the majority go down to winter in areas on the lower Yangtze or in Fukien Province.
Such being the case, the protection and preservation of this precious species Ciconia ciconia boyciana is only feasible when we secure the cooperation of the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union. To protect this species in international cooperation is the present writer's arden desire. In this connection he wants to call the attention of hunters to the deplorable fact that some of the very few starkswhich we strongly urge hunters and hunter's groups to reflect seriously upon such senselessness and immorality, which may well be called a national disgrace.