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|a The Food Habits and Nesting Succes of Wood Storks in Everglades National Park in 1974 |h [electronic resource] |b Natural Resources Report Number 16 |y English. |
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|a Homestead ; |a Florida : |b National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, |c 1978. |
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|a Please contact the owning institution for licensing and permissions. It is the user's responsibility to ensure use does not violate any third party rights. |
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|a The Wood Stork (Igycteria americana) is a wading bird adapted to fluctuating water levels
such as those found in the Everglades of Everglades National Park, The population of
Everglades Wood Storks declined through the 1960s and they did not nest successfully from
1967 through 1973. This paper describes a study conducted in 1974 on the factors affecting
food supplies and successful nesting of Wood Storks in Everglades National Park. Since
Wood Storks nested successfully in 1974, this study provided the first opportunity in 7
years to obtain information necessary for the preservation of the species in Everglades
National Park. As a result of this initial study, we reconunend areas of future research
required for proper management of the Everglades ecosystem.
Wood Storks began nesting in late January 1974 and the 2,000 nesting storks successfully
reared 1,900 young. Since 1974 was a dry year, it continued the recent but unnatural
pattern of storks nesting successfully in dry years, which began after the institution of
water control in 1962. An important result of this year's nesting was that the time of
nesting correlated with the rate of drying in the Everglades, substantiating a previously
derived relation. The 1974 results proved that sufficient food can still be produced in
the highly altered southern Florida environment to permit successful nesting of the remnant
population of Everglades Wood Storks, although with loss of habitat and artificial impoundment
of water, storks were forced to fly 130 Ian from the colony to feed young late in the
nesting season.
Preliminary information was obtained on the abundance of Wood Stork prey in the southern
Everglades and estuarine areas of the park. The first substantial understanding of food
habits of Everglades Wood Storks also was acquired through collection of food items from
nestling and adult storks. The diet of storks was composed almost entirely of fish and
only a few species made up most of the food consumed. Storks fed where food was relatively
concentrated and selectively consumed the relatively larger fish of those available.
The rapid population decline and changes in Wood Stork nesting success of recent years
coincided with the institution of water control. Analyzing these changes, as well as deriving
the proper management to preserve the natural Everglades ecosystem are complicated by
diversion of surface water to the western part of the southern Everglades rather thh
through the natural drainage basin. |
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|a Electronic reproduction. |c Florida International University, |c South Florida Natural Resource Center, |d 2015. |f (dpSobek) |n Mode of access: World Wide Web. |n System requirements: Internet connectivity; Web browser software. |
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|a South Florida Natural Resource Center. |
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|a Everglades National Park (Fla.). |
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|a South Florida Natural Resources Center/South Florida Research Center, Everglades National Park. |
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|a Everglades Digital Library: Reclaiming the Everglades. |
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|a South Florida Collection. |
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|a Federal Documents Collection. |
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|a dpSobek |c Everglades Digital Library: Reclaiming the Everglades |
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|u http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI06041906/00001 |y Click here for full text |
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|a http://dpanther.fiu.edu/sobek/content/FI/06/04/19/06/00001/FI06041906thm.jpg |
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|a Everglades Digital Library: Reclaiming the Everglades |
