SAFARI PARK WORKING TO SAVE ENDANGERED STORK

9 milky stork chicks hatched since effort began 2 years ago

Nine milky stork chicks have hatched — one last month — at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in an effort to save the critically endangered species, zoo officials said.

Staff conducted the first medical checkup this week on the chick that hatched in June. The checkup involved looking for irregularities, obtaining weight, collecting samples to determine sex and implanting a microchip.

“This checkup went very fast,” said Andrew Stehly, curator of birds at the Safari Park. “The chick was deemed healthy and was reunited with its parents. It is a tremendous honor every time I see a new chick because it increases my confidence that we will save these birds.”

The program conducted by the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance brought North America’s last 23 surviving milky storks to a habitat at the Safari Park.

The Safari Park received its first milky storks in 2016, with the zoo later also receiving storks. In March 2021, the birds from the zoo were moved to Safari Park, while eight birds from the Audobon Species Survival Center in Louisiana were brought to the facility, Stehly said.

A team of conservationists has been working to aid the birds to produce new chicks.

“This was a race against time,” Stehly said. “This group of birds are aging quickly and we are trying to have them produce as quickly as we can.”

He said the team monitors the flock closely and monitors eggshell quality.

“If we see eggshell quality decreasing (thin shells) we can give the female an opportunity to not lay eggs by giving her fake eggs to incubate, or we can keep her from the flock,” he said in an emailed response to questions.

The world’s population of milky storks has fallen substantially since the late 1980s, a zoo official said. Scientists said the decline in the bird’s population was brought about by habitat destruction and deforestation from human activities such as fish farming, rice cultivation, human resettlement and increased wildlife trafficking.

In 2008, the birds’ global population dropped to less than 2,200, alarming conservationists and leading them to change their status to “endangered” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list of threatened species.

KEN BOHN SAN DIEGO ZOO WILDLIFE ALLIANCE A ninth milky stork chick — shown with its parents — hatched in June at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park under a breeding program for the species.