Seven crested Crested Ibis born this year are being raised at Tama Zoo. 2026 Breeding Results Report

Tama Zoo is cooperating with the Ministry of the Environment's project to protect and breed Crested Ibis, and has received Crested Ibis ibises from the Sado Crested Ibis Conservation Center (Sado City, Niigata Prefecture) to keep them in private.

We are pleased to announce that Crested Ibis we are raising have laid eggs again this year, and seven chicks have successfully grown up at our zoo.

In addition, six other facilities (*) are also working on breeding, and currently, including our facility, we have raised 32 birds.

About the pair of Crested Ibis being kept in captivity

CQ pair: Male: Born May 6, 2022; Female: Born May 6, 2021
DK pair: Male: Born April 22, 2024; Female: Born April 30, 2019
DL pair: Male: Born April 19, 2024; Female: Born May 2, 2018
*The male of the DL pair was born at the Izumo City Crested Ibis Dispersal Rearing Center, while the others were born at the Sado Crested Ibis Conservation Center.

Egg-laying and hatching conditions

A total of eight chicks hatched from the breeding pairs, and seven of them are surviving. One chick died on June 16th at 50 days old (cause of death: hemorrhagic shock).

In captivity, there are two methods of breeding birds: "artificial incubation," where eggs are removed from the nest after being laid and hatched artificially in an incubator, and "natural incubation," where the parents incubate the eggs in the nest until they hatch. Similarly, raising chicks involves either "artificial rearing," where the chicks are raised by humans, or "natural rearing," where the parents raise them.

List of bred chicks

The history of raising Crested Ibis at Tama Zoo

Keeping animals in a single facility carries the risk of complete extinction in the event of an infectious disease outbreak. Crested Ibis, to prevent the spread of infectious diseases such as avian influenza, the Japanese crested ibis is kept in multiple facilities.

Because Tokyo Metropolitan Zoos have a track record of providing technical cooperation in breeding and rearing at the Sado Crested Ibis Conservation Center for over 40 years, they began dispersing and rearing Crested Ibis ibises at Tama Zoo which has Wildlife Conservatio Center that coordinates conservation activities, in December 2007, and have been successful in breeding them every year.

Domestic breeding status (as of July 27, 2026, excluding individuals released into the wild)