I read in the news (September 16, 2011) that Japan is sending some Japanese Cranes to Taiwan in thanks for help after the earthquake and tsunami. In 1994 Japanese colleagues from a research institute in Kushiro took me fishing at Nakashibetsu River, to the onsen (hotsprings resort) at Akan National Park, and to see the cranes along the Kushiro River. At that time there were about 600 tancho (Japanese, or red-crowned cranes, Grus japonica) in the world, and we saw about 60, or 10% of the whole world population. Now there about 900, a 50% increase since 1994. In 2006 I saw a few in the estuary of the Yellow River, China.
I posted photos of this and other crane species at https://picasaweb.google.com/113664418404513429838/Cranes#
No comments:
Post a Comment