In the past few days, the provincial wildlife protection station and Jingzhou Bird Watching Association spotted Baer's orchards, a wildlife species under China's Class-I National Protection, spending their winter in Gongan County's Chonghu National Wetland Park. By now, the population of Baer's pochards in Jingzhou has reached 157, accounting for about 1/6 of the global total.

"Baer's pochard is a critically endangered species worldwide, with a global population of less than 1,000. It is known to be even rarer than a panda." Zhang Xu, a staff member of Gongan County's Information and regulation bureau, revealed that the Baer's pochards were first spotted in 2015 by staff of Chonghu National Wetland Park Management Office when monitoring the overwintering birds. 

In recent years, Gongan County has been planning its development with the harmony between man and nature in mind. The county has been actively involved in wetland ecological restoration projects to protect the habitats of wild animals, and has so far made notable achievements. The Baer's pochards, which would have left after the winter, eventually settled down and reproduced offsprings in Gongan, raising its population from merely 40 to 157. At Chonghu Wetland Park, the procreation of Baer's pochards has now become a norm. 

It is known that Baer's pochards are extremely picky when it comes to the environment of their habitat and breeding ground. For this species, the size of the water surface, the camouflage of the nesting area, the height difference between the water surface and sandbanks, the diving range, the cleanliness of the water and the abundance of aquatic organisms available for feeding are all influencing factors, which is why they are also referred to as "the natural evaluators of wetland environment".