White Storks, Ciconia ciconia, forage on rubbish dumps in Poland—a novel behaviour in population

Abstract

Information on the foraging of White Storks on rubbish dumps, a novel behaviour in Central European populations, is presented. Observations were first made in 1999 and to date; they have been recorded on sixteen locations in Poland. From one to 348 White Storks (median=2, N=116) were observed on rubbish dumps, and most of the records (86%) were of 1-3 birds. Birds foraging on rubbish dumps were recorded from late March to early September, but the highest numbers were seen during the summer months. Most of the birds (77%, N=171) were recorded foraging directly on an area where rubbish had been thrown, while a minor fraction (16%) was seen on neighbouring recultivated grassy areas. Dumps were used as an additional food source probably in areas where natural foraging grounds are limited. The increased frequency of observations during the summer months probably resulted from the greater nutritional needs of large nestlings which force the adults to find alternative food sources or foraging habitat shift by non-breeding birds.

Breeding near a landfill may influence blood metals (Cd, Pb, Hg, Fe, Zn) and metalloids (Se, As) in white stork (Ciconia ciconia) nestlings

“…rodents, snakes, lizards, frogs and fish between others) and even certain amount of trash. However, landfills have become in the latter years an important source of nutrients, and for that reason an increasing percentage of the population is sedentary (Blanco 1996;Kruszyk and Ciach 2010;Massemin-Challet et al 2006;Peris 2003;Tortosa et al 2002). The food provided by landfills has a positive influence in the breeding success in this species (Tortosa et al 2002).…”

Shelter availability and human attitudes as drivers of rock hyrax (Procavia capensis) expansion along a rural–urban gradient

“…We observed that they also forage on exposed human food leftovers, which are not disposed in dustbins due to cultural norms prohibiting food waste (Figure A3). Trash accumulated in urban areas is known to attract other wildlife species to cities, including spotted hyenas in Ethiopia (Yirga et al, 2015), white storks in Poland (Kruszyk & Ciach, 2010), coyotes in Canada (Murray et al, 2016) and golden jackals in Israel (Borkowski, Zalewski, & Manor, 2011). In both neighborhoods, hyraxes avoided conventional shelters in well‐maintained areas where they were likely persecuted by maintenance workers or gardeners (Table A2).…”

Drivers of power line use by white storks: A case study of birds nesting on anthropogenic structures

“…Rice fields were identified as the main foraging habitat in Portugal (Gilbert, ), and this author reported that individuals travelled further to visit rice fields than the normal range of breeding season foraging trips, with distances matching the threshold of 5–10 km predicted from our model. White storks are known to feed intensively year‐round on landfills and nests near guaranteed food supply from landfills are highly desirable locations (Gilbert et al., ; Kruszyk & Ciach, ; Tortosa et al., ). Distances travelled during breeding to landfill sites often reach 15 km but can go up to 30 km (Gilbert et al., ; Tortosa et al., ), consistent with our findings.…”