Japanese Brown Rice

Konotori Hagukuku Okome Munoyaku 2kg

A Promise Made to the Storks

Stork preservation activities began in Toyooka City in 1955. However, the establishment of artificial nesting towers and efforts to preserve the environment did not produce results. In 1965, artificial breeding began, but it also didn’t lead to success. As the people of Toyooka put wild storks in cages at that time, they made a promise to the storks, “Someday, we will return you to the vast skies where you belong.” Forty years later, in 2005, five storks were freed into the skies of Toyooka. We plan to keep up our efforts to keep the promise made to the storks.

Toward Releasing Storks Back into the Wild

In 1985, fourteen years after storks became extinct in Japan, the Russian city of Khabarovsk sent six baby storks to Toyooka, and artificial breeding began. Starting with the birth of the first chick in 1989, new chicks were born each year, and by 2002, there were over 100 artificially bred storks. Then finally in 2005, five of these birds were released into the skies of Toyooka in the first step to return them to the wild. It had been 50 years since the start of preservation activities and 20 years since the start of artificial breeding.