Kei Osada, 41, is the man behind the recent success of a government effort to reintroduce the crested ibis as part of a captive breeding program for the species that once became extinct in the wild in Japan.
In the three years since he took charge of the reintroduction scheme at the Sado Japanese Crested Ibis Conservation Center in Niigata Prefecture in June 2010, 12 chicks hatched in the wild have fledged.
Of the 12, the eight hatched last year were the first wild crested ibises to leave their nests in 38 years in Japan.