Wildlife experts said they found 62 black-faced spoonbills in the island province of Hainan, south China, in a just-concluded program, simultaneously carried out around the globe, to survey the number of the rare waterfowl species.

Of the total number, 51 black-faced spoonbills were spotted in Dongfang city, 10 in Ling'ao county and one in the Dongzhai Port Mangrove Protection Zone of Haikou city, the provincial capital.

Wang Chundong, director of the Hainan Provincial Wildlife Protection Center, said the global program to survey black-faced spoonbills was launched in mid January this year and a record 1,186 such waterfowl were spotted around the world, 11 percent higher than the figure recorded for the same period of last year.

Zhang Guogang, a postdoctoral student at the Chinese Academy of Forestry Sciences who also participated in the survey program, called for intensified efforts to protect mangrove resources on Hainan island, so as to guarantee a safe home for black-faced spoonbills.

(Xinhua News Agency February 27, 2004)