White Storks

2002 Tracking Season

Close up on 20523

In December 2001 eight satellite transmitters were fitted to White Stork fledgings at the Tygerberg Zoo, Cape Town.

Six birds are presumed dead, as we are only getting signals from the transmitters 14559 and 20523. These two storks have remained in the same area during the last few weeks (6-May-02).

Since 4-May-02 we have not receibed any more signals from bird 14559. The remaining bird (20523) is still well, at least the activity counter keeps moving indicating that the bird is still alive. The quality of the signals is very poor and few fixes have been obtained, it has not moved significantly for the last few weeks.
After spending a long time in Sudan, Stork 20523, the last one left, started moving again this on the first of June, it crossed into Egypt on the 8th of June, and reached the Sinai Peninsula on the 12th of June. Next day it started to retrace its "steps" and it is now (13/06/02) in mid-Egypt, very close to the Nile River. Stork 20523 continues retracing it stepts and it is now back in Sudan (17-Jun-2002). On the following day the stork reached the place were it spent several weeks before going touring into Egypt.
It seems that bird 20523 has found a new home range among the tributaries of the Blue Nile, near the border with Ethiopia (7-10 July 2002). The latest data (11-09-02) shows that bird 20523 is alive & well, it continues in the same area.
Since 18-10-02 we have not receibed any more signals from this transmitter. Sadly, we have lost the last of the Western Cape storks fitted with satellite transmitter.

See a field report from Wim Van Den Bossche.

The following birds are presumed dead:

	Close up on 14559
	Close up on 01981
	Close up on 01982
	Close up on 01979 Last data received on 17-Feb-2002.
	Close up on 01983 Last data received on 5-Mar-2002.
	Last data received on 3-Mar-2002.
	Close up on 20527 Last data received on 11-Mar-2002.