Qing Dynasty hunters

"Swan tastes fantastic, far more delicious than duck or goose. When I was a child, I ate swan for the first and last time. Unforgettable," said a 50-year-old cab driver in Changsha, who declined to be named. He said he was raised in a village in north Hunan, where bird hunting is a local tradition.

For most residents, the birds are just a delicious foodstuff rather than a rare species. Local amateur and professional hunters kill the birds for nutrition and profit, but wealthy out-of-towners often arrive with their guns, girlfriends and a case of beer to indulge in a little sport.

"In many areas of the country, bird hunting has been a tradition for hundreds of years, as far back as the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)," said Zhang Houyi, 71, who was born and raised in Yueyang, a city on the shores of Dongting Lake, China's second-largest freshwater body and a famous wintering ground for migratory birds.

"There was a special group of hunters who worked for the emperor during the Qing Dynasty. Migratory birds were only eaten by the royal family and their relatives at that time," he said. The city maintained the tradition of "officially recognized" teams of hunters until the late 1970s. Zhang was a team leader until 1979.

The weapon used at the time was similar to a modern-day mortar, consisting of a number of iron pipes, 3 or 4 meters in length, fixed on a hollow base which was filled with gunpowder. The tubes contained hundreds of small iron balls that could kill even the largest birds with ease.

As awareness of wildlife protection increases in China, traditions are gradually being replaced by regulations, said Qian Fawen, an avian expert at the Chinese Academy of Forestry.

Reports on the movements of various species within even a small geographic area cost tens of thousand of yuan. Meanwhile, detailed cross-continental observations cost millions, but Qian has only received funding of between 100,000 to 200,000 yuan.

"This is why we cannot make hunting legal, because we don't yet have specific knowledge about the number of species," he said.