Feasibility Report for the Reintroduction of the White Stork (Ciconia ciconia) to England Derek Gow, Róisín Campbell-Palmer, Coral Edgcumbe, Tim Mackrill, Simon Girling, Helen Meech, Roy Dennis & Charlie Burrell 1 Table of Contents Executive Summary .................................................................................................................. 4 Restoring the White Stork to Britain, Roy Dennis ...................................................................... 6 1. Project overview .................................................................................................................. 7 1.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 7 1.2 Project partners ...................................................................................................................... 10 1.3 Milestones and desired conservation outcomes .................................................................... 10 2. Focal species – Biology and Ecology ..................................................................................... 11 2.1 Reproduction .......................................................................................................................... 11 2.2 Migration ................................................................................................................................. 12 2.3 Population dynamics ............................................................................................................... 16 2.4 Environmental requirements .................................................................................................. 18 2.5 Other threats ........................................................................................................................... 23 2.6 Distinctiveness from other species/populations .................................................................... 25 3. Conservation translocation ................................................................................................. 26 3.1 Rationale ................................................................................................................................. 26 3.2 Evaluation alternative options to conservation translocation ............................................... 27 3.3 Area based solutions ............................................................................................................... 28 3.4 Species based solutions .......................................................................................................... 28 3.5 Social/indirect solutions .......................................................................................................... 28 3.6 No action ................................................................................................................................. 28 4. Appropriate donor populations ........................................................................................... 30 4.1 Proposed donor populations .................................................................................................. 30 4.2 Harm to donor population ...................................................................................................... 30 4.3 Collection methods ................................................................................................................. 30 4.4 Potential organisations or animal collections or land owners involved ................................. 31 4.5 Details about proposed release sites ...................................................................................... 32 5. Legal considerations .......................................................................................................... 35 5.1 Required permissions and licenses ......................................................................................... 35 5.2 Quarantine/Biosecurity ........................................................................................................... 35 5.3 Dangerous species .................................................................................................................. 37 6. Examples of other reintroduction projects in Europe ........................................................... 38 6.1 Swiss Reintroduction Program ................................................................................................ 38 6.2 Belgian project (Zoo Planckendael, Mechelen) ...................................................................... 38 6.3 Alsace white stork reintroduction projects ............................................................................. 39 6.4 Swedish white stork reintroduction project ........................................................................... 41 7. Captive breeding and release methodology ......................................................................... 47 7.1. Captive breeding .................................................................................................................... 47 7.2 Breeding success ..................................................................................................................... 48 7.3 Release sites and strategy ....................................................................................................... 50 7.4 Timetable, resources and partnership .................................................................................... 51 7.5 Population modelling .............................................................................................................. 51 7.6 Risk assessment and potential conflicts ................................................................................. 55 8. Biological risks .................................................................................................................... 57 9. Socioeconomic risks ............................................................................................................ 58 9.1. Risk to aircraft ........................................................................................................................ 58 10. Monitoring and adaptive management requirements ........................................................ 59 2 10.1 Outline type, frequency and duration of planned monitoring ............................................. 59 10.2 Management including feasibility of reversing the reintroduction ...................................... 60 10.3 Biological sample collection .................................................................................................. 60 11. Communication plan ......................................................................................................... 61 12. Eco-tourism and engagement ............................................................................................ 63 Reference .............................................................................................................................. 64 Appendix A: Assessing project feasibility AEWA conservation guidelines ................................. 73 Appendix B: A history of the white stork in Britain .................................................................. 76 Appendix C: Other Diseases Causing Morbidity/Mortality in Ciconiiformes ............................ 147 Appendix D: Animal & Plant Health Import requirements ...................................................... 150 Appendix E: White stork project risk assessment ................................................................... 155 Supporting documents ......................................................................................................... 159 Acknowledgements Funding for this feasibility study was provided by Lund Trust. Funding and technical resources for the initial establishment phase of the project has been secured from the Knepp Castle Estate and the Cotswold Wildlife Park. We are very grateful to numerous people who contributed information used in this study including; Agnieszka Czujkowska (Warsaw Zoo), Nadia Messmer (Orangerie, Strasberg), Henri Brocklebank and Andrew Lawson (Sussex Wildlife Trust), the team at Hunawhir, and Ben Potterton (Shorelands Wildlife Gardens). We are very thankful to Cathy King (Weltvogelpark Walsrode), Leigh Lock and Mary Davies (RSPB), Nick Fox (International Wildlife Consultants) for providing valuable feedback on earlier drafts of this report and recommendations for future development. 3 Executive Summary This report will assess the potential for re-establishing a free living, breeding population of European white storks (Ciciona ciciona) into England. Natural England and Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) have confirmed this species is a regular vagrant which has attempted to breed in the British Isles and therefore no license is required for a reintroduction of the species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981). It is possible that white storks were breeding residents in Britain until the late 15th century. The modern Sussex town of Storrington in 1185 was formerly called ‘Storca-tun’, old English for "homestead with storks". It is likely that human persecution combined with habitat destruction were major factors in the species extinction. Literature reviews, study trips and communications with European restoration projects have all been used to advise this feasibility report. European experience indicates