Japan returned 16 locally born crested ibises to China on Thursday, honoring an agreement between the two countries to advance conservation efforts to reduce the extinction risk of the species.

This is the first such return of the internationally protected birds in eight years, and the creatures will reside at Beijing Zoo.

According to Japan's Environment Ministry, the transferred birds, nine females and seven males, were born at a conservation center on Sado Island in Niigata prefecture between 2016 and 2022.

Japan's native ibises became extinct in 2003, and the country has been using birds donated by China since 1999 for an artificial breeding program, agreeing to return half of the chicks born to China.

Since 2008, Japan has been releasing ibises on Sado Island to reintroduce them into the wild. As of late 2023, 532 crested ibises were estimated to be living in the wild, while around 160 were in facilities in Japan, Japan's Environment Ministry said, Kyodo News reported.

(Cover: Two crested ibises forage in a wetland in Hanzhong City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, October 16, 2024. /CFP)