16.06.2003

Only two Young Ones remain

In the end, of a total of four eggs laid by "our" stork couple only two young storks have survived. The first three chicks hatched at an interval of one day on June 8th, 9th and 10th, exactly at the time of the worst dryspell. The last hatched chick did not survive the dry period and lay dead in the eyrie on June 12th. It starved to death because the parent storks could not supply sufficient nourishment. Mice or small lizards were too large for the chicks. Earthworms, snails and other suitable small animals for the young storks were missing. Finally on June 14th a chick hatched from the 4th egg. Our hope was great that the "baby of the family" would have good chances to survive for the food situation had improved after precipitation over the last few days.

Yet on Sunday a parent stork ate the youngest stork. Such behaviour the Vetschau stork couple has already shown such behaviour in previous years. This way the parent storks "regulate" the number of young ones if they do not have enough food. Experts call this "Kronism", after the Greek mythological person Kronos, who was supposed to have eaten his own children. So, only two young storks remain with the Internet Storks. These are thriving and are being well fed by the stork parents.

Why do the parent storks kill one young one on one hand and sacrificially care for the remaining new generation on the other? It only appears to be a contradiction. Human beings believe it to be cruel, yet in nature such behaviour serves to perpetuate the species. When the food biotope does not supply enough nourishment, the parent storks "regulate" the number of young. With this they secure the survival of the remaining young ones. They must become fledglings by the middle of August and strong enough that they can overcome, during the late summer, the enormous flight distance to their winter quarters in Africa. The events at Vetschau show once again how important the protection of food biotope and its improvement is for the preservation of the storks.

Winfried Boehmer
NABU-Project Leader

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