The best place to see toki is "Toki-no-mori Park"!

Toki-no-mori Park is located in the Niibo disctrict close to the center of Sado. In the park stand "Sado Japanese Crested Ibis Conservation Center" and "Toki Exhibition Hall," which will acquaint you with a variety of things about toki, such as working on the ecology, conservation and propagation of crested ibises and their return to nature.
Toki-no-mori Park is the only place where you can see toki without fail. You can view ibises from a short distance from the observation gallary. If you are lucky enough, you can catch sight of the pale pink color of the inner sides of a toki's wings when they are spread.

Sado and toki

The "toki," designated as one of the internationally protected birds, used to be seen in various parts of Japan, as its scientific name "Nipponia nippon" implies. But the population of toki is said to have decreased due to the hunting and deterioration of the living environment in the Meiji era. Since the end of World War II, every possible effort has been made on Sado Island, but the population gradually became smaller and smaller.
Later, Japanese Crested Ibis Conservation Center was established in the Niibo district (ex-Niibo Village), the last habitat of toki in Japan, and artificial breeding was undertaken. The efforts to propagate the few captured Japanese toki ended up in failure, but a pair of crested ibises were presented by China, where wild ibises could still be found, and a chick was born to the pair. The number of toki being bred has shown yearly increase ever since, and in 2007 the population surpassed 100.

Efforts being made to return toki to nature

Sado Island, aiming to "get 60 toki settled down in the east of the Kosado area by 2015," has been working hard in cooperation with many organizations and enterprises, such as the Ministry of Environment.

"We hope we humans can restore to nature what we humans have destroyed."
"Let's build an environment in which both humans and nature feel it easy to live by making toki our symbol and building an environment where toki can inhabit."
By getting many people to take interest and participate in these endeavors, we hope to build the environment in which everyone feels it easy to live, to say nothing of tokis' return to nature...this is what the local people say they want to realize.

Since September, 2009, the release of crested ibises into nature has been carried out every year, and as of 2010, 20 odd toki have returned to nature.

name of facility	Toki-no-mori Park
address	383-2 Niibo-nagaune, Sado City, Niigata Prefecture
business hours	8:30 - 17:00 (Visitors are requested to enter the park by 16:30.)
a regular holiday	Every Monday between December and Feburary (in case a national holiday falls on Monday, the park will be closed on the following Tuesday); the year-end and New Year (December 29 ～ January 3)
a parking place, a parking lot	Parking place: available / Free of charge Standard-size cars / 82 Large-size buses / 5 Midsize bus / 1
a charge for using (…)	At Toki (Japanese crested ibis) Exhibition Hall, visitors are requested to cooparate by donating a small portion of "the expenses for environment conservation" on entering the hall for the purpose of the conservation and improvement of the natural environment in the vicinity. Adults / 200 yen Children (primary and junior high school students) / 100 yen
payment method	cash