Fourteen Sarus cranes have been released to natural habitats in a forest in Buri Ram, authorities said yesterday.
The Zoological Park Organization of Thailand (ZPOT) on Friday released 14 Sarus cranes, bred by Nakhon Ratchasima Zoo, into wetlands in non-hunting areas of Huai Chorakhe Mak reservoir in Muang district.
The Nakhon Ratchasima Zoo has bred and trained the birds to make sure they can live in natural habitats themselves, Atthaporn Sriheran, the director of the Zoological Park Organization of Thailand, said. They will join another 133 cranes already there.
Mr Atthaporn said cranes were endangered for 50 years before the organisation began to breed the birds at Nakhon Ratchasima Zoo in 2001. In 2014 the zoo released 119 of them into the wetlands.
More such releases are planned to increase their population and create bird observation areas to stimulate tourism, he said. The ZPOT has also bred gazelles, great hornbills, oriental pied hornbills and woolly-necked storks and released them to many conservation forests.
Currently, it is researching and breeding red-headed vultures at Nakhon Ratchasima Zoo ahead of their eventual release, he said.