With Japanese know-how and the unwavering support of Japanese experts, Bhutan’s national bird is being hatched and hand-reared in captivity successfully for the first time ever.
The major hurdle to rearing chicks was overcome, and two healthy birds were just hand-reared, bringing the total captive population to five—a crucial lifeline to a bird that numbers less than 100 in the wild.
The critically-endangered white-bellied heron faces extinction due to habitat disturbance from human activities and predation. Professor Satoshi Shimano and his team from Hosei University, Japan, collaborated with the White-Bellied Heron Conservation Center (WBHCC) in Bhutan, to revive the species through direct intervention.
This heron is the world’s second largest, a symbolic bird for the people of Bhutan, and also a typical ‘umbrella species’ that requires a habitat with a vast, preserved environment. In recent years, the white-bellied heron population has decreased significantly.
As of 2024, it’s estimated there are fewer than 45 left in the world, although the official count stands at 60. It’s endemic to the Indian subcontinent, with approximately 25 individuals sighted in Bhutan, and the rest across the border in India. Conservation efforts for the species are limited and fragmented across the region.
In 2021, the Royal Society for Protection of Nature (RSPN) in Bhutan decided to begin efforts to artificially breed white-bellied herons outside their natural habitat, and the WBHCC was constructed and began operation in 2022. The WBHCC, located in the mountainous areas of south-central Bhutan, a six-hour drive from Bhutan’s capital, Thimphu, is supported by the Royal Government of Bhutan, international donors, agencies, and global philanthropists.
Two of the center’s three herons were collected as chicks from wild nests, and the other was rescued as a wounded bird. The center plans to collect not only chicks but also eggs from wild nests to artificially hatch them in an incubator. This was because monkeys were observed eating the heron’s eggs during incubation.
Since pair-bonded adults build their nests on steep cliffs and high trees, collecting chicks and eggs is extremely dangerous. A single nest typically produces around four eggs, and only 3–4 white-bellied heron pairs have been confirmed to nest in Bhutan.
The RSPN planned to establish 16 founder populations (8 breeding pairs) by 2028 and release at least 50 herons in the wild by 2050 as part of the population restoration programs, but by 2023, it had only produced 3 chicks, all of which had to be euthanized because of genetic abnormailties resulting from inbreeding, or so it was believed.
Back in 2018, Professor Shimano met a Bhutanese graduate student, Mr. Pema Khandu, who was working to conserve his national bird. Having witnessed the extinction of the Japanese populations of the oriental stork and the Japanese crested ibis, Dr. Shimano readily volunteered to help.
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“We must not let Bhutan make the same mistakes we made in Japan,” Shimano remembered saying.
Professor Shimano recruited Japanese veterinarians Dr. Takashi Nagamine and Dr. Yumiko Nakaya, from the Okinawa Wildlife Federation and planned a trip to the WBHCC. They concluded that the chick deaths were actually more likely due to hand-rearing techniques rather than genetic abnormalities.
A support team was formed, composed of experts from the Hyogo Park of the oriental white stork and several member associations affiliated with JAZA (Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums). These experts had been involved in the captive breeding of oriental storks, Okinawa rails, and Japanese crested ibises. The team visited the WBHCC twice in March and April 2024, during the breeding season, taking the Japanese experience with these birds with them. Equipment and supplies were donated to the WBHCC.
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Even in Japan, it took more than twenty years to establish the artificial breeding technique for the storks and ibises.
“Japan, which knows the pain of having lost the endemic Japanese lineage and the subsequent efforts that followed, should be the one to make use of its own technique overseas,” said Shimano. “Everyone on the team is committed to supporting the white-bellied heron for the next 20 years.”
Leg abnormalities were known to occur frequently in the ibises and storks during growth. Similar leg abnormalities were observed in the white-bellied herons that died in 2023 and in those hatched in 2024. Rei Matsumoto, a veterinarian and senior researcher at the Hyogo Park of the oriental white stork, instructed that the bedding material be changed to twigs of a thickness that the chicks could easily grasp.
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As a result, one of the two chicks showed improvement in its legs and began to grow well.
“There have been past cases where efforts to prevent the extinction of both the crested ibis and the oriental stork have failed. In order to prevent a repeat of this, I hope that by providing the knowledge that Japan has, we can increase the number of these birds, even if only a little,” said Matsumoto.
The team is hopeful that, within 5 to 10 years, when the captive population rises to around 30 individuals, they will release a few into the wild.
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