FOUR silver pheasants were freed at Luofu Mountain in Guangdong Province by Shenzhen animal protection workers Friday.

At 11 a.m. that day, the four silver pheasants were brought to the Provincial Natural Conservation in Luofu Mountain, Huizhou. The wildlife was sent by staff members of both, the Shenzhen Wildlife Protection and Management Center, and the Shenzhen Wild Aid Center.

This is the first remote operation for Shenzhen wildlife protection institutions to free silver pheasants in another city.

Guo Qiang, a staffer with the Shenzhen Wildlife Protection and Management Center, said silver pheasants, the second-level of national key protection animals, are the provincial bird of Guangdong.

The birds were saved from the yard of a resident’s home by the Shenzhen forest police April 9. The four silver pheasants were found with messy feathers and several impact injuries, which suggested possible abuse while being confined to a cage by the local resident.

The birds were then handed to Shenzhen Wild Aid Center. After careful treatment, nursing and initial training for a return to the wild, the experts gave a green light to their release.

Guo told the reporter with Shenzhen Economic Daily that freeing wild animals requires a scientific attitude and compliance to the procedure. “According to wildlife and bird experts, Shenzhen has no inhabiting record for silver pheasants. In order to avoid the unpredictable impacts to the ecosystem in the city, we contacted the wildlife conservation department in Huizhou and helped the birds return to nature on Luofu Mountain, where activities of silver pheasants have been recorded,” he said. (Chen Siqi)