YINCHUAN, March 7 (Xinhua) -- When "Little Fellow" was found on ice, it was dying.

"The little bird had injuries in its left wing, and it just lay on the ground, unable to lift its head," said Ma Hongjun, 47, a forest policeman in Jingyuan County, Guyuan City in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. "After examination, we found that it had not eaten for several days. If we were a little late, it would not have made it."

Jingyuan is located deep in the Liupan Mountains, a major ecological barrier in northwest China. Last December, three snowstorms in Jingyuan stranded the little bird migrating to the south.

Authorities later confirmed that it was a one-year-old Chinese Egret, an endangered species under national protection. Such birds mainly reproduce in parts of Russia and China in the spring and summer, and fly south to the Phillipines and Singapore in the autumn and winter to get through the bitter cold.

To protect the bird from low temperatures and its inability to hunt, Ma and three other colleagues took it under their wing and named it "Little Fellow."

After learning that egrets feed on fish and shrimps, they bought three buckets of crucian from the market and fed the bird by turns. Ma also gave all the fish his son caught during the winter holiday to the bird.

"I didn't tell my son, and I plan to buy some from the market before he comes home this summer holiday," the policeman said.

The bird ate three meals a day, and each time Ma fed it, he patted the bird on its neck to show kindness.

After more than two months of feeding and as the ice melted, the egret was ready to be released into the wild in late February. Ma and his colleagues released Little Fellow into a local wetland.

"We were worried about him and went to check on Little Fellow every day," Ma said. "We fed him little fish and observed how he adapted."

Earlier this month, a sudden sleet lowered the local temperature to minus seven degrees. Ma hurried to the wetland but couldn't find the bird anywhere. Little Fellow did not come back until recently, and brought home a new friend, a black stork.

"I was surprised to see the black stork, because it is also a national, first-class protected animal in China, as precious as the egret," Ma said.

After living with the police for about two months, the bird has become quite attached to people wearing police uniform: it flies away if an ordinary person is about 20 meters away, but stays when those wearing police uniform approach.

"For me, it's five meters, because Little Fellow knows that I will not harm him," said Ma. "It is recovering well, and I think he will find company when other egrets return."

With the ecological environment improving in the Liupan Mountains, many wild animals thrive there. Official figures show that the forest coverage rate there increased from 1.4 percent in 1982 to 26.7 percent, and the area is home to various plants and wild animals.

The number of the endangered egretta is also increasing, and authorities have observed about 15 in the county in recent years.

"Animals are our friends, and we should protect them so that we can live in a better environment," Ma said. Enditem

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