Japan's once extinct stork population reaches 100

The population of once extinct storks living in the wild in Japan has reached 100, an official at a specialist conservation facility said Monday.The number of storks, designated as a special national treasure, hit the threshold 12 years after artificially bred birds were released into open skies for the first time from the facility in western Japan -- Hyogo Park of the Oriental White Stork in Toyooka city -- as part of efforts to return the species to the wild.Staff at the facility, which also has observed breeding in the wild since 2007, confirmed that a male chick had flown from an artifi…READ FULL ARTICLE