Female crested ibis released into wild found dead

NIIGATA, Japan, Dec. 14 Kyodo - A 1-year-old female crested ibis was found dead Sunday in a mountainous area in
Sado, Niigata Prefecture, after it was returned to the wild together with nine
other artificially bred birds in September, a local branch of the Environment
Ministry said.
The ministry said it had observed during its daily monitoring that the bird was
squatting down without moving for about five hours on Tuesday, and suspected it
had sustained certain injuries. The bird then remained unaccounted for until
Sunday.
The ministry identified the body as that of the female ibis from its ID anklet,
it said.
Wild crested ibises, called ''toki'' in Japanese and designated a national
treasure in 1952, had become virtually extinct in Japan by January 1981, when
the government captured the last five for artificial breeding.
The September release of the 10 birds -- five males and five females -- was the
first step in an Environment Ministry program to settle 60 ibises in the wild
by 2015.
==Kyodo
2008-12-14 20:12:23