15.06.2004

What did actually happen to Afri?

Because different versions of information regarding the dropping of Afri by one of the patrent storks were provided to me, I spoke again with both of our trainees. Both were at the Stork Centre on Monday and witnessed the event personally. Not all details were passed onto me on Monday, which led to the erroneous message of June 14th, "Internet Storks throw out Young One".

What did actually happen to Afri? A parent stork grabbed Afri and flew away with him. At a distance of about 60 yards (50 m) from the nest and a height of 50 feet (15 m) he relaesed the stork chick. It hit the street and was instantly killed. A car driver witnessed this and promptly notified the Stork Centre.

A trainee fetched the chick. Afri sustained such massive injuries that he must have been dead at once. After consulting me by telephone, Afri was buried on the grounds of the Stork Centre. My report that the parent stork simply threw the chick out of the eyrie was in error. The observation, that the parent flew away with him, however, is the actual sequence of events. I apologize for the misinformation. It happened, on one hand, because we wanted to relate the information quickly, on the other hand, because we didn't have all details of the event. As a rule, young storks are thrown from a nest, in this case, though, we learned that the parent stork carried the young one away from the eyrie before letting him fall to the ground.

Winfried Boehmer
NABU-Project-Leader

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