In order to implement the project of releasing the artificial-bred species of red ibis as soon as possible, Shaanxi Province government has allocated special funds for the construction of a big net cage for red ibis. After one year’s elaborate construction, a 35-meter-high cage, covering an area of 7,420 square meters, has been set up formally in the Red Ibis Rescue and Raising Center of the Yangxian County. Meanwhile, a ceremony of releasing the birds to the simulated wild world was held, during which eight adult red ibises and 10 near adult red ibises flied to the cage.
The big cage is an experiment base of releasing red ibis to the wild, where a simulated inhabiting environment for wild red ibis is built involving trees, grass and water. The complete ecological situation provides a good living environment to red ibis’s natural hunting for food, flying and breeding. As the first phase of the research on the red ibis’s releasing to the wild, the experiment is expected to accumulate precious research materials for the releasing of artificial-bred species to the nature, as well as to speed up the breeding process of red ibis to prevent them from extinction.
(China.org.cn, translated by Zhang Tingting on June 26, 2002)
