Endangered stork egg hatches in wild
Ap, Tokyo
An endangered white stork egg laid in the wild has hatched naturally in western Japan for the first time in more than 40 years, a local stork museum announced yesterday. The new chick's parents a 7-year-old male Oriental white stork and his 9-year-old partner were born through artificial breeding at a public farm, the Hyogo Prefectural Homeland for the Oriental White Stork, and were released into the wild last September. The couple started mating in April and built their nest atop a 14-yard-tall manmade pole in a rice paddy near the farm in the city of Toyooka. "The baby was born!" the Eco Museum Centre for Oriental White Stork said in a statement on its Web site. "It would be a major step forward for storks' return to the wild."
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A chick is seen at the feet of parent white stork in a nest at Toyooka, western Japan on Sunday. An endangered white stork egg laid in the wild has hatched naturally in western Japan for the first time in more than 40 years. PHOTO: AP |
