On July 24, a villager in Nanluzhuang Village in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province found a wounded black stork chick in a nearby field. With the help of the local forestry station and caring netizens, the wounded black stork was promptly sent to the wildlife rescue station in Shijiazhuang City, with the meticulous treatment of Mr. Gao Qiong, the director of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) Community Conservation Area for black stork at Pingshan (CCAfa), and Mr. Xing Shijie, the director of CBCGDF CCA for sand martin at Shijiazhuang, it is now out of danger and able to eat normally.
"When this black stork just arrived, it was very weak, unable to fly, eat, or stand. We checked it carefully and found that it had an old fracture on its right wing and its tail was also damaged. The tail was also pierced by a slingshot. However, because it does not eat, its physical strength cannot be guaranteed, so it cannot be operated on for the time being. It can only be raised first and then operated when it is better. But in the nearly 20 days of careful care, the injury on its tail has basically healed, and the life threat has at least disappeared,” Gao Qiong said.
The black stork is a national first-class protected bird in China, and its staple food is fish. Because of its preciousness, the black stork has the reputation of "the panda among the birds". Gao Qiong said: "In recent years, the ecological environment in Shijiazhuang area has gradually improved. Now, Pingshan County and Jingxing County have several flocks of black storks living there all year round. Usually, we often see the figures of black stork when we patrol and protect birds and water resources in Jingxing County. Now the black storks in Shijiazhuang, including the group over there in the CCA for sand martin site , add up to nearly 100. This is really very exciting."
After consulting experts, Mr. Xing Shijie, the director of CBCGDF CCA for sand martin at Shijiazhuang said that this black stork is still a young bird and should have been waiting to be fed by an adult bird, and is still in the process of coming out with its parents to learn predatory skills. But because of the injury, it fell into the wild and was unable to move, causing it to be extremely weak. If it weren't for someone to find out and rescue in time, it would be difficult for the little black stork to pass this level.
Xing Shijie said: “Because of the need to diminish the inflammation of the tail wound, the feathers on the tail of the little black stork have been cut off by the rescue staff. So, this year it cannot catch up with the large forces of the migration, but it’s expected that when the black storks fly back in groups during the beginning of the spring next year, the little black stork can return to where it belongs.”
Nowadays, Mr. Gao Qiong and Mr. Xing Shijie still spend nearly five hours every day feeding the little black stork, cleaning its wound and looking after it. Although the journey is a bit hard, they enjoy it. Kudos to the CBCGDF CCAfa sites' directors!
(Photo credit: Xing Shijie)
By / Niu Jingmei
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