28 Nov
2018
Researchers
celebrate breeding success in South Korea for the Chinese Crested Tern – a bird
once thought extinct. Decoy model birds have helped bolster the new colony, and
the species has been spotted in Japan for the first time.
Trying to
spot a Chinese Crested Tern amongst a colony of similar-looking Greater Crested
can be likened to playing a high-pressure game of ‘Where’s Wally?’, in
which rather than simply completing a fun puzzle-book by spotting a man in a
red-striped jumper, the fate of an entire species relies on your attentive
eyes.
So when,
about three years ago, we reported a
momentous discovery in the conservation of Asia’s rarest seabird,
the Chinese Crested Tern Thalasseus
bernsteini, we were very excited by what it could mean. Korean researchers
had spotted five adults and one chick amidst a colony of Black-tailed Gulls on
an uninhabited rocky island (Chilsando), 7 km off the southwest coast of South
Korea. This was extra special because Chinese Crested Tern was feared extinct
until 2000 when breeding birds were rediscovered on the Matsu Islands of
Chinese Taiwan, and hadn’t been seen on the eastern side of the Yellow Sea for
almost 100 years. Yunkyoung Lee, Researcher from the National Institute of
Ecology (South Korea), remembers the moment well:
“When I
realised that we were looking at Chinese Crested Terns, I felt a thrill
throughout my whole body”, she says. “Their slender appearance with black
caps and white backs was eye-catching in the crowded colony of Black-tailed
Gulls Larus
crassirostris, which have white rounded heads and grey backs. However, in
the field, we did not know immediately what they were. We had never seen this
species before, let alone ever anticipated that they would lay eggs in Korea.”
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