THE CRESTED IBIS

The crested ibises, one of the four treasures of the Qinling Mountains, used to be widely distributed in East Asia and in broad areas of Siberia. In the 20th century, it disappeared one after another on the Korean Peninsula and in Japan and other places. In 1981, experts found seven wild crested ibises in Yaojiagou, Yangxian county, Shaanxi province, a place in deep Qinling. In the past 40 years, the population of crested ibises has gone through from "still existing" to "under protection", "growing" to "rebounding", and their habitats continue to expand.