Fires at Reserve Destroy Habitat of Rare Crane

Fires have burned in a northern Chinese nature reserve for nearly two months, destroying thousands of acres of parched marshlands that are home to a rare crane, a park management official said.

Record low rainfall and the draining of waters for agriculture have left the Zhalong Natural Reserve tinder-dry, said the official, who gave his surname, Pang. The fires started Aug. 27 and spread across 33,000 acres of marsh, he said.

The reserve hosts one of the few remaining groups of red-crested cranes, also known as Manchurian or Japanese cranes. Pang said most of the 200 cranes thought to live at Zhalong fled and were unhurt.