The South Korean government has released dozens of crested ibises into the wild to promote its efforts to preserve biological diversity. 

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the government of Changnyeong County in South Gyeongsang Province held a joint event on Thursday at the regional government’s center for restoration of the endangered bird species and released 40 of them. 

The event was arranged to commemorate the International Day for Biological Diversity that fell on the previous day. 

The bird has not been visible on the Korean Peninsula since it was last seen in 1979 near the Demilitarized Zone(DMZ). 

South Korea made efforts to restore the species after former Chinese President Hu Jintao delivered a pair of the birds as a present during a South Korea-China summit in 2008. 

The restoration center in Changnyeong has bred more than 360 crested ibises so far.