Abstract
African woolly-necked storks (Ciconia microscelis) depend on wetland habitats for foraging and nesting in natural environments. Recently, they have started colonising urban environments in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and are now a common sight in suburban areas in particular. There have been some anecdotal reports on supplementary feeding of this species by households in some urban areas where they are common. However, these reports have never been confirmed and therefore the extent of feeding and lack thereof is unknown. Using a questionnaire survey, we therefore investigated the extent (if any) to which householders in urban and suburban areas of KwaZulu-Natal provide supplementary food to African woolly-necked storks. We also determined the feeders’ provisioning habits, and identified the motivation behind and attitudes toward feeding. We found that a significant number of householders fed African woolly-necked storks on a daily basis throughout the year. The majority of respondents provided meat while others provided inappropriate food such as bread. Respondents were most often motivated to feed for personal pleasure. Our results showed that this species is successfully utilising and exploiting anthropogenic food – a novel behaviour. The observations and narratives from respondents strongly suggest that the African woolly-necked stork is present throughout the year, contrary to the perception that this species is migratory during winter. Based on the results obtained in this study, supplementary feeding of African woolly-necked stork by householders is relatively common, widespread and established in suburban areas of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. However, reported inappropriate feeding may create concerns regarding the health status of African woolly-necked storks in urban population. Therefore, to prevent further detrimental effects and potential human-wildlife conflicts we recommend that suitable feeding guidelines be formulated.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to numerous members of the public who kindly replied to our sighting request and those who completed our questionnaire. Special thanks to MM Zungu and MB Khambule for their valuable input on the manuscript. We thank the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the National Research Foundation (ZA) and the Rufford Foundation (GB) for funding. We also thank Idea Wild (US) for donating binoculars and a laptop. We thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments that greatly improved the final manuscript.
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Thabethe, V., Downs, C.T. Citizen science reveals widespread supplementary feeding of African woolly-necked storks in suburban areas of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Urban Ecosyst 21, 965–973 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-018-0774-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-018-0774-6