Abstract
European white stork (Ciconia ciconia) populations have been object to several conservation measures such as reintroduction programs, habitat improvement or supplementary feeding in the last decades. Although recent white stork censuses revealed an upward trend of most of the western populations, evaluations of the relative importance of certain conservation measures are still scarce or even lacking. In our study we analyzed the effect of supplementary feeding on the reproductive success of white storks in conjunction with other factors such as weather or nest site characteristics. We present data of 569 breeding events at 80 different nest sites located in variable distances to an artificial feeding site at Affenberg Salem (south-western Germany) collected from 1990–2012. A multilevel Poisson regression revealed that in our study population (1) reproductive success was negatively affected by monthly precipitation in April, May and June, (2) pairs breeding on power poles had a lower reproductive success than pairs breeding on platforms or trees and (3) reproductive success was significantly higher in pairs breeding in close distance to the feeding site. The number of fledglings per nest decreased by 8% per kilometer distance to the feeding site. Our data suggest that supplementary feeding increases fledgling populations which may be a tool to attenuate population losses caused by factors such as habitat deterioration or unfavorable conditions in wintering habitats.
Highlights
White stork (Ciconia ciconia) populations in Western Europe decreased tremendously after 1945 leading to a severe threat of extinction or even extinction in most West European countries [1]
On average 2.46 (SD = 1.53, N = 288) young storks fledged if breeding occurred in close proximity to the feeding site (,300 m); 1.99 (SD = 1.62, N = 148) chicks fledged in nests which were between 300 m and 3 km away form a feeding site and only 1.70 (SD = 1.45, N = 133) chicks fledged from nests if the distance to the feeding site was more than 3 km
Our study provides a first step to understand the effects of a particular conservation measure in a West European white stork population and to evaluate its consequences
Summary
White stork (Ciconia ciconia) populations in Western Europe decreased tremendously after 1945 leading to a severe threat of extinction or even extinction in most West European countries [1]. Breeding white storks disappeared in Belgium, Switzerland (1950) and in Sweden (1955) [2,3]. Environmental changes in breeding and wintering habitats have been discussed as main reasons for the severe decline of West European populations [7,8,9,10,11]. As a consequence conservation actions on a national level such as reintroduction projects, supplementary feeding and habitat improvement have been applied in several West European countries to prevent migrating white storks from extinction [8,12]. Reintroduction activities included continuous releases of white storks reared in captivity, installation of nest sites (poles) and supplementary feeding of free flying individuals [12]
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