The Hatching That Enthralled A Nation
Illawarra Mercury
Wednesday June 9, 1999
SADO ISLAND, Japan.- The nation awaited the birth with rapt attention. TV stations beamed progress reports by the hour.
Then came the big moment: an exhausted Japanese crested ibis finally pecked its way out of a speckled shell and stumbled into the toasty air of an incubator.
The hatching last month of the nearly extinct ibis lifted Japanese efforts to grapple with decades of environmental devastation, and provided living proof that reversing the damage won't be easy.
``The little ibis crawled out of the shell, and without thinking, we all grabbed each others' hands in joy," gushed Hiroki Chikatsuji of the Sado Crested Ibis Preservation Centre, where the chick was bred.
Few species could have inspired such media hype in Japan as the crested ibis. The graceful bird, with a red face and legs, pinkish-white body and sloping black beak, once crowded rice fields all over the country and was a favourite of scroll artists. Its scientific name, nipponia nippon, left its Japanese pedigree unquestioned.
Then development, rice paddy pesticides and deforestation destroyed the ibis' food supply. A generation of Japanese knows the bird only as an endangered species.
If the hatching offered some hope of more ibis to come in Japan, it was also a strong reminder of just how devastated the country's environment has become.
The crested ibis is one of 90 endangered species of birds in Japan and among a total of 370 endangered species of animals in the country, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
© 1999 Illawarra Mercury
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