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The White Stork Project is a pioneering partnership of landowners, the Cotswold Wildlife Park and Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, working to restore a self-sustaining population of white storks in southern England by 2030.
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Beneficiaries
Situation
White storks were lost from our shores over 600 years ago due to hunting and habitat loss. They are a migratory species, and there have been many sightings of them in the UK over recent years. However, storks are highly social and will not establish themselves in an environment unless they can find a colony of other storks there. They need a helping hand to get them back as a breeding bird in England. This is where our work comes in.
Solution
In 2018 the White Stork Project established two penned colonies of white storks, donated by Warsaw Zoo, at Knepp Estate and Wadhurst. In 2020 their free-flying offspring bred in the wild for the first time in the UK for hundreds of years. These English-born storks are now nesting with wild birds, joining them on migration to southern Europe and Africa and – crucially – returning to their English birthplace to breed. In 2023, 26 chicks successfully fledged from the two establishment sites.
