A female scaly-sided merganser was pictured in Zhangjiagang on March 24. [Photo/WeChat account: zjgtvnews]
A female scaly-sided merganser, also known as Chinese merganser, was pictured by a bird lover at the riverside in Zhangjiagang, a county-level city in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province on March 24. It was later seen twice, on March 27 and 28 respectively.
The diving duck became a national first-class protected animal in the 1980s and was listed as endangered under the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List. There are currently between 2,400 and 4,500 Chinese mergansers left in the world.
As this particular species of duck is very fastidious about its living environment, the sighting of the duck in Zhangjiagang is a nod to the city's efforts in improving its natural environment.
The Chinese merganser was first spotted in Zhangjiagang in 2015. That was also the last time the creature was seen in the city.
Other national-level protected animals spotted in Zhangjiagang last year include the white crane, the spoon-billed sandpiper, and the finless porpoise.