{"id":20076920,"date":"2021-07-26T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-26T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thethirdpole.net\/?post_type=photo_story&p=76920"},"modified":"2022-07-29T15:21:06","modified_gmt":"2022-07-29T09:51:06","slug":"white-bellied-heron-threatened-in-bhutan","status":"publish","type":"photo_story","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/nature\/white-bellied-heron-threatened-in-bhutan\/","title":{"rendered":"World\u2019s rarest heron on the brink in its last Himalayan stronghold"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The white-bellied heron, found in the freshwater ecosystems of the Himalayas, is the most endangered heron species in the world. Listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List<\/a> since 2007, its total global population is estimated to be only 50-249 adult birds, and numbers are declining even further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get the whole picture<\/p>

This is one in a series of articles exploring some of the ways communities and governments in Asia are responding to the biodiversity crisis. You can view the whole series\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the conservation NGO BirdLife International<\/a>, the species is already extinct in Nepal and possibly in Bangladesh too, with the entire global population now restricted to northern Myanmar, northeast India and Bhutan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Locally known as chubja<\/em>, Bhutan is home to around 45-50% of the total global population of white-bellied herons, and the largest known number of breeding pairs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"White-bellied<\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"White-bellied<\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\"White-bellied<\/div>
White-bellied heron in Bhutan (Images: Yeshey Dorji)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"White-bellied<\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

But a recent study gives cause for concern for the species in Bhutan too. In March 2021, the annual white-bellied heron population survey<\/a> by the Royal Society for Protection of Nature (RSPN) Bhutan, a civil society organisation, recorded 22 herons: 19 adults and three sub-adult individuals. This was a decline by five compared with 27 birds in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n