Once-abundant bird almost extinct within 13 years

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The once common yellow-breasted bunting has been driven to the verge of extinction by massive hunting.

The bird has recently been moved from endangered to critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Photo from the Paper

As recently as 2004, the yellow-breasted bunting was listed in the category of least concern, the lowest alert level in the system.

The species travels more than 4,000 kilometers from Siberia to south China and Southeast Asia to spend winter annually.

IUCN attributed the sharp decline in the number to large-scale hunting for food in China, where it is regarded as a nutritious delicacy and an aphrodisiac.

Photo from Yangcheng Evening News

However, Zhu Yi, an associate professor at the College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering at the China Agricultural University, said there is no scientific basis for the claim that the yellow-breasted bunting is more nutritious than pigeons or quails.

“It is not advisable to eat wild birds, which have a higher risk to infect with unidentified viruses during migration and may be poisoned for illegal hunting,” Zhu said.

Liu Lin, who was involved in the trade of the bird in Hebei Province about a decade ago, told Beijing Youth Daily that it is almost impossible to catch a yellow-breasted bunting now.

“We could trap some 50 birds every day by setting up 10 nets in the crop field back in 2008," Liu said. "In 2011, we could only catch five to six a day. I’ve heard that only one or two birds could be caught every two or three days now.”

Photo from Guangdong News

Even though China has banned trading of the bird since 1997, the illegal practice continued. It is sold at more than 60 yuan (about 10 US dollars) per bird in hidden menus in restaurants of south China’s Guangdong Province.

At least 28 cases of illegal hunting of the bird had been reported between 2000 to 2013, with more than 100,000 birds killed in the southern cities of Guangzhou and Shaoguan alone.