On the deserted island of Zhongtedunyu in Xiangshan County, Ningbo City / Zhejiang Province, Southeast China / 33-year-old Chinese Ding Peng has been caring for Chinese terns, a rare species of seabirds, for ten years.
Chinese terns are under state protection of the first category in China. They have long been considered an extinct species, but in 2000, for the first time in 63 years, they were first found in the Matsu archipelago in the northern part of the Taiwan Strait of China. After the appearance of birds, an increasing number of people began to join the work of searching for and protecting them, including Ding Peng.
In March 2013, Ding Peng, together with more than 30 domestic and foreign ornithologists, visited Zhongtedunyu Island to create artificial nesting sites for Chinese terns and restore their population. Since then, the young man spends more than 100 days on the island every year for ten years, caring for a rare species of birds.
Thanks to the efforts of Ding Peng and other volunteers, Zhongtedunyu Island has become the world’s largest breeding site for Chinese terns, with more than 150 chicks hatched in total. As a result, the total number of Chinese terns on the island has increased from 19 to over 100 individuals. This was reported by the Huanqiuwang website.