For breeders, red plumes are the crowning glory

When 380 red-crowned cranes were released into the wild recently, it turned a Chinese nature park into the world's largest breeding site and habitat for the bird.

- ZHOU HUIYING

The park, Zhalong National Nature Reserve in Heilongjiang province, was established 45 years ago and is now known as the home of red-crowned cranes.

It was inscribed on the List of Wetlands of International Importance in 1992 and was honored as one of China's Top Ten Charming Wetlands in 2013.

Reflecting on these hard-won achievements, Wang Wenfeng, a conservationist who has worked at the reserve for 21 years, voiced many emotions.

When Wang began working at Zhalong he initiated the establishment of a red-crowned crane captive breeding work group and set up a red-crowned crane captive breeding center.

The work aimed to reduce interference in the breeding of free-range red-crowned cranes and facilitate the successful rewilding of their offspring. This resulted in a new field of red-crowned crane captive breeding.