Wildlife officials have begun a massive search for about 100,000 migratory birds that have disappeared from the Poyang Lake Nature Reserve after China experienced its worst winter weather conditions in five decades.

Luo Shengjin, deputy director of the state-level reserve in eastern Jiangxi Province, said about 200,000 wild birds had been in residence before the snow and freezing temperatures began last month. After the weather began to ease last week officials began searching for the birds and had only located 40,000 to date. Luo said that the data could be inaccurate because the monitoring equipment was not advanced and officials could not reach the center of the frozen lake.

As the reserve covers only 10 percent of the lake, some of the birds could have migrated to other areas.

No mass bird deaths have been reported.

(Xinhua News Agency February / Shanghai Daily 18, 2008)