A stunned bird fills a monitoring gap for a species

"The release into the wild lasted 75 days, with 1,816 successful return sites, and 3,067 kilometers of migration, an average of 40.9 kilometers per day."

A large black bird with its registered residence on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau flapped its wings and set off from Qinghai, passing through Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. At around 12:00 on November 2, it crossed the border from Zhenkang County, Ruili City, Yunnan Province into Myanmar. It is currently living in Inkhimbin, Sagaing Province, Myanmar.

As a first-class protected wild animal in my country, the black stork probably never thought that its "flight trajectory" would be exposed, leaving behind a series of trajectory analysis diagrams. What is more worthy of its lifelong boast is that it has become the first plateau breeding black stork in China to wear a locator.

Its legendary story doesn't end there: a pair of black stork parents traveled thousands of miles to Qinghai Province to breed offspring. Under the day and night monitoring of the Qinghai National Park Bird Watching Association staff, four little black stork babies thrived. One day, a little black stork accidentally hit the back wall of a villager's house late at night because it was "lost contact". After the relevant departments of Qinghai Province received the situation, they urgently sent the black stork to the rescue center for treatment. Afterwards, it began a healthy and feeding life in Xining Wildlife Park. Afterwards, it was successfully released.

But since it's here, it can't leave in vain. The price of releasing it is to give it a beautiful and smart "anklet".

On December 14, the Qinghai Provincial Forestry and Grassland Bureau, together with multiple departments, held a press briefing to inform the media of the legendary story of this "cheating" black stork.

"A bird fell from the sky!"

The black stork (scientific name: Ciconia nigra) is a migratory bird and the national bird of Belarus. It is a large wading bird with a graceful figure, bright body color, agile movement and alert temperament. Due to its rare existence, it is known as the "giant panda among birds". In my country, this species is mainly distributed in Northeast China, North China, Northwest China and other regions, among which Qinghai is one of the main breeding grounds of the black stork. At present, this species is listed as a first-class key protected wild animal in my country, assessed as a species of least concern (LC) by the World Conservation Union (IUCN), assessed as a vulnerable (VU) species by the "China Red List of Vertebrates", and is also listed in Appendix II of the "Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora" (CITES).

Due to the scarcity of existing numbers, my country's scientific research institutions have long been blank in conducting surveys on the black stork population.

The story of this legendary black stork began in March this year.

Wang Jianting, president of the Qinghai National Park Birdwatching Association, said that on March 15 this year, the association staff observed and recorded two black storks through a monocular telescope during the monitoring of the Huangshui River Basin, and then saved the video data. Later, they were identified as two adult black storks, and the nest site of the pair of black storks was determined.

Since then, the association staff has started daily monitoring of the two black storks. At the end of March, the two black storks began to lay eggs and incubate them. After more than a month of incubation, four black stork chicks were successfully hatched in early May. When the chicks were nearly 100 days old, they began to fly out of the nest and practice flying. On August 29, the black stork chicks left the nest one by one and went to the feeding ground with their parents.

As the nesting site happened to be on a cliff where a road was being built and there were many heavy machines at the local construction site, the Wildlife and Plant Protection Division of the Qinghai Provincial Forestry and Grassland Bureau rushed to the construction site to coordinate adjustments to the construction plan, reduce the amount of explosives at the construction blasting points, avoid disturbing the black storks, and do their utmost to protect the black stork family from breeding and living here.

The good times didn’t last long. One day in September, the association’s staff found that of the four black storks that left the nest, only three returned. Where did the other one go?

On this side were the anxious staff, and on the other side were the villagers who were at a loss because of the "big bird falling from the sky".

"A big bird fell from the sky and hit the back wall of my house. Come and have a look..."

On September 18, the relevant department received a call from a villager saying that an unknown large bird had fallen into his yard. After receiving the news, Wang Jianting was very surprised. Because the time when the black stork was lost, the location of the black stork's nest, and the village where the villagers lived were exactly the same as the situation of the injured large bird. That night, the Forestry and Grassland Bureau of Ping'an District, Haidong City, Qinghai Province transferred the injured black stork to the Qinghai Wildlife Rescue and Breeding Center.

It turned out that the black stork was frightened and hit the wall and fell into the villager's home. The center staff then conducted a comprehensive examination of the black stork and found no obvious injuries, no fractures in the cervical spine, wings, or legs, no secretions or bleeding in the mouth, nose, or eyes, no excrement around the anus, and the stork was in good nutritional condition and had a normal body temperature.

He Shunfu, director of the veterinary hospital of Qinghai Wildlife Rescue and Breeding Center, introduced: "On the second day of rescue, the black stork was in good spirits, eating well, and the color and characteristics of its stool were normal. We gradually increased the feeding amount, and after three days of feeding, gave it plenty of live fish fry and loaches to let it eat freely." At the same time, in order to avoid excessive human interference and cause the rescued black storks to become dependent on humans, the staff left quickly after giving them food every day and did not have too much contact.

On September 24, the black stork was immunized with avian influenza and Newcastle disease recombinant vaccines in the nose and eyes. After a period of solitary isolation, the rescued black stork's eating, daily behavior, feces and other aspects were in good condition, and it was initially assessed that it was suitable for release into the wild.

"Here's a little gift for you. Fly, and remember to come home!"

With the development of science and technology, satellite tracking technology, which began in the 1980s, has been widely used in bird migration research, but there has been no research on satellite tracking of black storks so far.

As the release date approaches, in order to integrate the black stork satellite tracking data and population genome information and establish a migration system, the research team of the Northwest Plateau Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences decided to equip the black storks with satellite positioning trackers.

From then on, this legendary black stork began its days of "working" for humans.

At 16:00 on September 29, the black stork was successfully equipped with a backpack satellite positioning tracker. At 13:00 on September 30, it was transported to the vicinity of the nest for release into the wild, and real-time tracking was officially launched. Flying all the way from Qinghai Province in my country to Myanmar, the black stork "left traces wherever it passed", and its migration path, stopover location, flight altitude, and flight time were accurately monitored and recorded.

Zhang Tongzuo said that monitoring data on black storks shows that black storks breeding in Qinghai migrate south through Sichuan to Yunnan and continue to migrate southwest to Myanmar for the winter.

"The use of satellite positioning and tracking technology can not only accurately monitor the migration routes of birds, but also reveal the migration time of various migratory birds, the differences in spring breeding migration and autumn overwintering migration strategies, long-distance migration and activity patterns before and after migration, population migration dynamics, activity areas and habitat utilization, and the correlation between migration and environmental factors. It can also provide accurate and comprehensive migration information for the prevention and control of viruses such as avian influenza during bird migration, and provide new ideas and important data support for wildlife protection, management and population monitoring." Zhang Tongzuo said.

"The black stork has historically chosen to breed on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. This is a direct testimony to the improvement of Qinghai Province's ecological environment and the effectiveness of biodiversity conservation. We hope this black stork can 'grow up and go home'!" During the interview, Cai Ping, director of the Wildlife Conservation Division of the Qinghai Provincial Forestry and Grassland Bureau, who personally experienced the rescue of the black stork, was filled with emotion.

Zhang Tongzuo also said that this is a typical example of successful rescue protection of rare and endangered species with the participation of multiple parties. It is to preserve every unique and beautiful creature in the natural treasure house of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and at the same time contribute to the protection of biodiversity in the country and even the world.

Qinghai Province has taken a number of measures to continuously strengthen the construction of a natural conservation area system with national parks as the main body, and has achieved remarkable results in promoting the protection of wild animals and their habitats. The populations of Tibetan antelopes and Przewalski's gazelles have recovered, and snow leopards have frequently appeared in infrared camera lenses.

This time, with the help of all-round nature education by wildlife management departments, spontaneous participation of the masses in management and protection, active rescue efforts by animal rescue centers, and dedicated participation from scientific research institutes, the black stork was not only rescued alive and released back into the wild, but its activities were also monitored in real time, allowing its migration route to be accurately determined for the first time. This is crucial for the protection of black storks, and is also of great reference significance for the protection of other endangered species.

◎ Science and Technology Daily reporter Zhang Yun

Source: Science and Technology Daily

Editor: Liu Yiyang

Reviewer: Wang Xiaolong

Final review: Liu Haiying