White stork chicks successfully adopted in Dumbrăvioara!

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IMG_5407The previous days, due to bad weather, several stork chicks fell from the nest in Mureș county, which were subsequently rescued by the “Milvus Group”. During the annual stork ringing session in Dumbrăvioara, the four healthy chicks (originating from Brâncovenești and Mătrici villages, Mureș county) were placed in four different nests, where the nestlings were successfully adopted by their new families. The chick placed in the video surveyed nest received the ring with 7082 number and seems to be feeling good along with other young storks. Its story begins at Brâncovenești (Mures County), where, because of a severe storm, the original nest collapsed. Unfortunately, in the incident two chicks died, one suffered serious injuries, currently being cared in the Rehabilitation Centre by veterinarians from the Vets4Wild Association. The other two were placed in foster nests yesterday during the ringing action of the offspring. Although seemingly the chicken ringed with the 7082 number hobbles, probably due to minor sprains, he is under surveillance by our specialists. On the website of the Association we received several comments about the emergence of a third chick in the surveyed nest and about the adoption procedure. Well, the placement of orphan nestlings in adoptive nests is a practice with broad application in bird conservation and if used with caution, this method has no adverse effects on the original brood. In most cases, the chicks are accepted and raised by the adults as their own offspring. IMG_5328The Dumbrăvioara adoption is not a unique case, yearly dozens of birds (raptors, owls, storks, etc.) are successfully rescued by this method by the members of the Association. Stork chicks can be reared by humans but if they get natural food and are developing among their peers, they have incomparably greater probability to survive. For these reasons we decided to get one chicken in a nest with chicks of similar age, the camera nest being one of the few suitable. IMG_5366In yesterday’s action, 22 nestlings (including the four adopted) were ringed in seven nests. This action’s goal is to learn more about the breeding biology and ecology of the species, including migration routes to Africa and dispersion patterns in the breeding grounds. Each stork receives two rings upon its legs (tibia), one aluminum and one colored ring. The colored ring with the big visible characters enables us to identify them from large distances without catching them again (and so saving some additional stress). Thus, our findings show that  storks ringed in Dumbrăvioara in the last 13 years, now nest in villages even 30 km away, like Iernut or Ogra. “Milvus Group” is ringing storks for 20 years now with aluminum rings and for 15 years with colored ones.

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