Possible release to the wild of the captive-bred crested ibis, Nipponia nippon.

The present study was designed to try a possible release to the wild of the captive-bred crested ibis (Nipponia nippon) using an aviary (flight cage). A special attention was paid to ensure parental characteristics of human-hand-reared birds. Successful result was obtained when parental birds (male and female) were kept far from other breeding birds in captivity. This experiment suggests a possibility of releasing of human-hand-reared birds to the wild which may contribute to the increase of population size of the crested ibis in the future.