58 endangered red-crowned cranes hatched in China

Nearly Sixty red-crowned cranes were hatched this year in China's Zhalong National Nature Reserve in Heilongjiang Province, the world's largest captive breeding centre for endangered birds.
The endangered red-crowned crane is found in northeast of China, Japan and North Korea.
There are no more than 1,000 red-crowned cranes living in the wild in China and about 2,000 worldwide. The reserve has been exploring ways to train captive-bred cranes for release into the wild.
This year, four red-crowned cranes released, according to Gao Zhongyan, a reserve official, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Fifty eight endangered red-crowned cranes were hatched in the Zhalong reserve that covers 2,100 square kilometers of area and was set up in 1979 in China's largest reed wetland.

Currently, the population of wild red-crowned crane there stands at around 300.
At the reserve, each baby crane's basic information is recorded, and they wear coloured rings on their legs so they are easily identified.