Two of five artificially bred white storks fly high in the sky just after their release Sept. 24.

"All the five took off just fine," said an official at a protection center for the endangered storks in Toyooka, Hyogo Prefecture.

It was the first time that artificially bred oriental white storks had been released in an attempt to bring them back to the wild, the park said.

It was also the first time in more than three decades that the birds had flown in Japanese skies as the last domestic wild stork died shortly after being taken into protective captivity in 1971.

There are only about 2,000 oriental white storks in the world, the majority of them in Russia and China.

The Japan Times Weekly: Oct. 1, 2005
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