The white-eared night heron, one of the most elusive members of the heron family, has been spotted again in the Ailao Mountains in Yunnan Province, located in the southwest of the Chinese mainland, for the fourth consecutive year.
This rare bird, indigenous to the Chinese mainland and Vietnam, is listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species and is under first-class state protection in China.
Li Xingzhi, an official with the Ailao Mountains National Nature Reserve, emphasized the significance of continued sightings in recent years to the preservation of this species.
Recently, a spotted adult white-eared night heron weighing 594 grams and measuring 63.2 centimeters in length was captured by a team of experts in the reserve.
\"Bird calls could be heard nearby that night, indicating the presence of more than one such bird,\" said Zhao Xuebing, a PhD student from Yunnan University, who was participating in a bird-banding operation at the time.
The captured heron has since been released back into the wild, now equipped with a satellite tracker to monitor its movements and support ongoing conservation efforts.
Reference(s):
Endangered heron found in SW China's mountains for 4-years running
cgtn.com
