Chicks of slain stork to be raised at facility

No further mention anywhere of the of the hunter, or his possible guilt or legal status. The silence in the mainstream press anyway, suggests it was just an 'oops' moment; nothing behind the scenes is being reported on the light web. I guess Japan is not a country where people rush to apportion blame.

Right...

According to this article, the hunter was part of a group out culling herons and shot it by mistake. After killing it the 60-yr-old noticed a ring on its leg and notified the hunting association.

雲南市教委によると、１９日午前１０時ごろ、地元猟友会の６０代男性が同市内の田でサギの駆除をしていた際、誤って散弾銃で撃った。兵庫県立コウノトリの郷公園（豊岡市）が付けた足輪があり、男性が猟友会に連絡した。

https://mainichi.jp/articles/20170520/ddn/041/040/009000c

My wife and I visited the stork facility in Toyooka several years ago.

The entire community has rallied around protection of this severely endangered bird with remarkable success. This is a great conservation story in Japan, and could be modeled upon for the rest of the world.

Too bad that this female was "accidentally" killed -- these birds are MUCH bigger than herons. And since it would have had to be a shotgun, the range would have been no more than 50 meters, so easy to have been identified. Love to know whether this hunter was arrested or at least publicly shamed.

"Why, Japanese people?!?!"

None of the articles has yet touched on the central question of why hunters were shooting herons.

@Alex Einz...

Easy.. old age poor eyesight

how could you mistake a stork with a heron? they are totally different looking birds...

probably some old fart

Kniknaknokkaer has it right. First rule of hunter, if you're not 100% sure of what you're firing at, do NOT fire.

Why would he be shooting at a heron? (Or rather what he thought was a heron?) Are they designated pest animals? Are there really that many of them around?

it is great to wake up and hear good news. best of luck to them.