JP-Lone wild stork may herald return of species

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Lone wild stork may herald return of species

 

Yomiuri Shimbun, July 31, 2001

Yasuo Shinomiya Yomiuri Shimbun Osaka Regional News

Editor

 

It is a very different kind of feeling to see rare and

wonderful creatures in their natural habitat instead

of in a cage at a zoo or breeding facility.

 

It has recently become popular for zoos to raise and

display animals in artificial environments that mimic

their original habitats. Because of limited space,

however, it is inevitable for visitors to such zoos to

feel that these surroundings are still lacking,

compared with the natural environments of animals

living in the wild.

 

A month ago, I had a chance to watch an oriental white

stork on a remote part of the Oki Islands, northeast

of Shimane Prefecture, in the Japan Sea. I was

impressed with the solitary stork's lonely but

impressive and noble bearing.

 

I saw the stork in Gokamura of the prefecture, located

about 20 minutes drive from Saigo Port. Mountains

surround the sparsely populated village, which has the

largest number of rice fields on the island. The

Omosugawa river flows between the rice fields. The

oriental white stork, a rare species nowadays, has

apparently chosen to stay a while in this mountain

village with its unspoiled natural surroundings.

 

For a few moments, I managed to observe the stork

taking its perch on a cliff more than 20 meters high.

It rested its wings and gazed down on the rice fields.

 

Through my binoculars, I could clearly recognize the

stork's distinctive thick, black beak and wings edged

with black flight feathers.

 

At the bottom of the cliff was a pine grove where

egrets were gathering in a flock. The wild stork was

larger than any of the egrets. The stork's body is one

meter long, while its wing span reaches about two

meters. I was told that the stork often comes down to

the rice paddies and hunts with the flock of egrets,

feeding on small fish and tadpoles.

 

Wild oriental white storks were thought to have died

out in Japan about 30 years ago. Currently, about

3,000 of the storks inhabit the border area between

Russia and China. They fly south to the area near the

Yangzi River in China to spend winter before flying

back in spring.

 

Every year, a couple of storks stray from the route

and end up in Okinawa Prefecture or in Kyushu.

 

The wild stork I saw in Gokamura was one of these

stray birds. It was first seen in December in Miyazaki

Prefecture and moved northward via Kitakyushu. It was

also seen at Shinjiko lake in Shimane Prefecture and

Yonago in Tottori Prefecture.

 

The stork appeared in the Oki islands in late April.

It was the first time in 10 years that a stray stork

had wintered in the area and stayed in the country for

so long.

 

Earlier this month, two researchers from the Homeland

for the Oriental White Stork in Toyooka, Hyogo

Prefecture, visited Gokamura. The researchers came to

the village to videotape the environment of the rare

bird in its new surroundings. They will use the

footage as part of their ongoing project to study the

ecology of the species.

 

As part of their " Return to the Wild " project, the

group plans to release into the Toyooka Basin white

storks it has bred in captivity. This basin was the

last known habitat of the bird in the nation.

 

The group's bird sanctuary, which I have visited twice

since it opened two years ago, is serving as the main

base for the project. In spring, eight storks were

born, bringing to 81 the total number of white storks

at the facility.

 

Overcoming a variety of difficulties, the group bred

the storks from those it obtained from the Khabarovsk

region of the former Soviet Union and other places.

 

In June last year, a visitor center was built on the

165-hectare sanctuary, which is located in a mountain

valley.

 

Although it is possible for visitors to see the storks

at close range at the center, the birds appear

somewhat cheerless probably because they are locked in

a cage rather than living in the wild.

 

There are many hurdles to clear before the white

storks can be released back into the wild. Since it is

a big bird, the white stork has a wide range. If, in

this range, there is insufficient available food free

from contamination by pesticides and herbicides, the

storks will quickly be in danger of extinction once

again.

 

Farmers near the homeland are experimenting with using

ducks in place of pesticide as part of local community

efforts to coexist with the sensitive wild birds. With

the experimental release of white storks planned

several years from now, the Homeland sanctuary is

closely watching how the white stork I saw in Gokamura

will spend its summer and how wide an area it will

stake as its territory.

 

I hope data collected from observing the stork will

help make the release of white storks into the wild

both possible and successful.

 

White storks used to be seen everywhere in this

country. During the Edo period (1603-1868), they used

to live on the roof of Sensoji temple in what is now

Asakusa, Tokyo. Although this stork was nearly

annihilated by humans in the 20th century in Japan, I

hope we can see it flying free in our skies once again

in the 21st century.

 

Copyright The Yomiuri Shimbun

 

 

 

 

 

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