Endangered Animals in the World
Let us give you one example from the Red List. It
is the crested ibis, or toki in Japanese. Up until the
Meiji era, we could see many ibises around this
country.
However, the population of ibises in Japan rapidly
decreased. People hunted them for their beautiful
feathers, and development destroyed their
environment. It was difficult for them to survive.
In 1981, five ibises were captured on Sado Island
10
for breeding. People tried to help them live safely, but
they died one by one. The last one died in 2003.
However, we still had some Chinese-born ibises
on the island.
They were a gift from the Chinese
government in the 1990s. Since then, people have
been breeding these ibises. We have lost all of the
original Japanese ibises, but someday ibises may fly
15
over Japan like before..
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