Sejong, September 16 - The Ministry of Environment (Minister Han Wha-jin) and the National Institute of Ecology (Director Cho Do-soon) ed that the Chinese Crested Tern, one of the rarest birds in the world, having only a hundred in the world, was successfully bred in South Korea. It is the sixth breeding since 2016 and happened in Yuksan-do Island in Yeonggwang-gun, Jeollanam-do. The bird banding made it possible to keep tracking the species' migration pattern. The Yuksan-do island became the fifth breeding site of the species after China in April 2016 when a Chinese Crested Tern was discovered nesting among a colony of black-tailed gulls. The fully-grown Chinese Crested Terns have been visiting Yuksan-do Island every year since its first discovery in the area. As its stable population has been maintained, the international academia recognized South Korea as an important breeding site for the Chinese Crested Terns.

From March to June this year, seven Chinese Crested Tern visited the island. A pair laid an egg among them and fledged one young Chinese Crested Tern. On June 1, 2021, the NIE researchers tied a metal band on the leg of one adult Chinese Crested Tern and a yellow band on the chick's leg. On June 3, 2022, the researchers captured two adult Chinese Crested Terns, and one chick hatched on Yuksan-do Island this year. The researchers put white bands on the adults' legs; each a mother bird and a non-breeding adult were marked with "PB" and "PA", respectively. They also tied a light blue band tagged "070" on the chick's leg. While doing it, our research team discovered that the one with the "PA" band is the same bird banded with a metal one last year.

The team ed that another fully-grown bird tied with the white PB band, or the mother bird, and the chick with the light blue band had been living with black-tailed gulls on the seashore of Gochang-gun, Jeollabuk-do, in end-July after they had left the island at the end of June. It has also been proven that the two birds stayed on the seashore of Qingdao, China, until August. Another Chinese Crested Tern, who left at the same time as the two Chinese Crested Tern with a metal band and a white band marked PA, was discovered around the seashore of Gochang, Jeollabuk-do on August 2 by birdwatchers. Four days later, on August 8, other birdwatchers found those birds again on the shore of Jiaozhou Bay, Qingdao, 536 kilometers west of Gochang-gun.

The research team also identified the migratory route of the chick tied with a yellow band last year. A Chinese birdwatcher also discovered this Chinse Crested Tern in September 2021 near the coastline around Shandong, China, which is 610 kilometers from Yuksan-do Island. Other birdwatchers also observed this bird on June 21 this year in Yilan City, Taiwan, 1,262 kilometers south of the Shandong shore. After two months, the bird was again spotted near Jiaozhou Bay in August.

The NIE was able to track the migratory route of the Chinese Crested Terns thanks to the attached color bands and information sharing among domestic and foreign birdwatchers. By establishing a network for cooperative bird watching domestically, the institute plans to continue tracking the migratory routes of Chinese Crested Terns and conserve bird habitats based on studies about Chinese Crested Terns breeding. The Ministry of Environment plans to list Chinese Crested Terns as a Class I Endangered species. The ministry is holding the public hearing on revising the Enforcement Rules of the Wildlife Protection and Management Act for forty days from September 5. 

The Director of Nature and Ecology Policy Division, Kang Seong-gu, said, "Yuksan-do island is one of the breeding sites of the Chinese Crested Tern, which ranked as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. The Ministry of Environment will try to secure habitat diversity as managing habitat was found necessary."

Contact:Yoo Byung-hoon, Deputy Director

Nature and Ecology Policy Division / +82-(0)44-201-7229

Foreign Media Contact: Chun Minjo(Rachel)

+82-(0)44-201-6055 / rachelmchun@korea.kr