LifeTrack of White Stork ,tag 2550 (ring HH 873), Ciconia ciconia2012 to 2013

Sex: femaleBorn: Nest location: Loburg / Germany Tagging Date: 31st July 2012Ring no.: HH873Mother: Tag number 2303Siblings: 3 / tag 2548, 2549Died in: Tanzania / AfricaDate of death: not known - poison/toxin is a possibilityCause of death:Sponsors: MPIO and HUJ/DIP, Storchenhof Lohburg

Special info: Used for Annotation with DLR for Urbanization

PHOTOS

Photos of nest

General view of the destination point. The dead twigs in the foreground marks the exact location.

Destination, looking North towards Lake Rukwa

Patch where Stork was found

First Sight: Body was hidden by long grasses, under the shade of a large, thorny shrub

Another stork nearby

CORRESPONDENCEAssistance Requested to Retrieve a GPS Transmitter from a Dead Stork near Rukwa lake, Tanzania 13 March, 2013 Your assistance is greatly appreciated in retrieving a GPS device from a dead stork that is near the shore of lake Rukwa. The stork that was carrying the device was part of a research study on stork migration. Storks migrate tremendous distances and spend some time in Tanzania. The researchers who are involved with this project would like to find the dead stork in order to estimate why it died and get GPS device back because it contains the last data that may help to relate the last movements to its death. The GPS coordinates for the device are latitude -8.511727 and longitude 32.831432 with an accuracy of about 5 meters. To get close to the device to find it on the ground, you will need a GPS unit. The yellow square on the map to the right shows the location of the device which is about 800 meter south of the lake. To zoom in to this area using Google Maps, you can open this link: TanzaniaStork , green arrow mark the tag location. The map on the next page show the location of the stork in larger zoom in. The GPS device stopped transmitting its location in the 11-Mar-2013, however before it stopped working it was in the same location for quite a while, so the bird was probably lying there for quite some time. It stopped working because the solar charged batteries have run out. The device is small, about the size of half a pack of cigarettes (see picture) and was attached to the bird with a backpack like harness. Look for a bird carcass on the ground, and/or some straps or GPS device. If you find a carcass try to estimate the cause of death and take pictures. If you are willing to go out and look for it or if it was found, kindly contact the biologist of the project Shay Rotics at shay.rotics@mail.huji.ac.il. It is recommended to contact Shay before going out to get the most recent update.

CORRESPONDENCE

Lake Rukwa

Dead Stork near Rukwa lake, 13 March, 2013

CORRESPONDENCE

Hello all

Now we have another dead stork, that died in Tanzania (tag 2550). Location is: -8.511727 / 32.831432 (lat/lon), on the shores of lake Rukwa. I'm very confident of this location since we got a long sequence of fixed positions until the depletion of the battery. The location seems accessible and the last message was just 2 days ago so the retrieval chances are very high. Do you know anyone who can help in Tanzania?As usual, in addition to finding the transmitter, we are also interested in getting some pictures, estimating the cause of death from the carcass, and ready to cover local travel cost.

ThanksAll the bestShay

Dear Tim!Great, great, great, and superb! Excellent and a very quick job - well done and many thanks.Later on I'll send you some details about the retrieved stork and will be glad to hear more on how it was found and about this area.Brigitta / Martin, please give Tim instructions how and where to send it (plus covering shipment cost).Warm regardsShay On Sat, Mar 16, 2013 at 10:50 PM, Tim Davenport <tdavenport@wcs.org> wrote:Success!! Pleased to say we have retrieved the stork and the transmitter. The animal has been dead at least a week so cause of death hard to determine. The carcass is now in our freezer in Mbeya. More details to follow Tim

CORRESPONDENCE

From: Tim Davenport [mailto:tdavenport@wcs.org] Sent: Saturday, March 16, 2013 9:50 PMTo: Shay RoticsCc: Steve Osofsky; Ran Nathan; Wayne Getz; Liz VanWormer; hsadily@gmail.com; djwolking@ucdavis.edu; Wikelski, MartinSubject: Re: Another dead stork with transmitter - now in Tanzania Success!! Pleased to say we have retrieved the stork and the transmitter. The animal has been dead at least a week so cause of death hard to determine. The carcass is now in our freezer in Mbeya. More details to follow Tim

CORRESPONDENCEDear all Firstly I hope I have all the right people on here. I am assuming this is a collaborative project between various institutions, so apologies if I have missed someone. I am delighted we were also able to help in a small way. Shay, many thanks for the story behind the project and this individual. From a conservation perspective, migratory species of any type present such a huge challenge. Having good science to support implementation is essential and learning about individual animals brings that to life. To read that 8 out of the 18 juveniles you tagged in August have died is in itself a fascinating statistic. Given the area where individual 2550 died there is no obvious anthropogenic causes of death that come to mind, not least as the carcass wasn't eaten. However, I suppose poison/toxin is a possibility, not least with the historic and unmanaged use of mercury around Lake Rukwa to mine for gold. There has been some work looking at the high levels of mercury in some of the feeder streams. Anyway, I attach Niwaeli's excellent file with images. Very many thanks to her, as well as Buto and Ayubu for spending their Saturday hunting for dead storks in this remote location. And Noah for organising it all. We will work on the repatriation of the transmitter to the address you gave us Brigitta, thank you. Fedex is unreliable in upcountry Tanzania so we may look for other safer options, but we will let you know. Please keep us updated on the project. With best wishes Tim ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Tim Davenport PhDCountry Director - TanzaniaWildlife Conservation Society (WCS)PO Box 922, Zanzibar, East Africawww.wcstanzania.organdwww.wcs.orgwww.tzwildlifecorridors.orgwww.tanzaniaherps.orghttp://programs.wcs.org/shcpreddwww.atherismatildae.orgwww.zanzibarcrows.org