At one time, the crested ibis nested in the Russian Far East, Japan, and Mainland China, and was a non-breeding visitor to the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan.

Northwest Shaanxi province's research center has a history of 26 crested ibis fledglings including artificial and natural incubation.

[5] In the 1980s, the birds were decimated by overhunting, the use of pesticides, ongoing habitat loss, their already small population size, their limited range, winter starvation and persecution, which together brought the endangered species to the brink of extinction.

[8][9] On June 23, 2022, nearly five hundred toki returned to Sado, where the bird's delicate pink plumage and distinctive curved beak now draw tourists.

They represent a rare conservation success story when one in eight bird species globally are threatened with extinction, and one which involved international diplomacy and an agricultural revolution on a small island off Japan's west coast.

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