Jacksonville, FL - On May 25, 2010, a team from the Savannah River Ecology Lab, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens banded 172 chicks from the Zoo’s wood stork rookery. A 40 foot all terrain lift was used for accessing the stork nests located high in the trees in the Zoo’s Plains of East Africa Exhibit. The Zoo team collected data on each stork, including size and health information, and then returned the chicks safely to their nests. The Jacksonville Zoo has been monitoring and banding the wood storks since they first started nesting at the Zoo in 1999. The Jacksonville Zoo monitoring and banding data is reported to the USFWS Wood Stork Recovery Group. The data is used for research purposes and to compare with other sites across the range of the species to determine how well the recovery effort is going.
“The zoo is all about connecting people to nature,” said Tony Vecchio, executive director of Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens. “To have visitors experience a thriving colony of a native endangered species is an incredible and unique opportunity for any zoo. We’re thrilled the wood storks have chosen to nest here annually.”
The Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens’ rookery is unique in its accessibility, and the Zoo is one of many entities involved in a cooperative effort to monitor the endangered wood stork. Each year, leg bands are applied to several baby storks. These numbered bands allow researchers to identify individual storks as they move throughout the state and across their range. This year stork chicks first banded at the Zoo in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008 have returned here to nest -- some probably for the very first time.
The wood stork rookery at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens has had the highest productivity rate of all the colonies in Florida since 2003. Since 1999, 1,241 endangered wood storks have fledged, and another 260 are expected to fledge this year at the Zoo’s colony. The rookery has grown from seven nests the first year to more than 116 nests this season.
For over 90 years, the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens has been dedicated to inspiring the discovery and appreciation of wildlife through innovative experience in a caring environment. Starting in 1914 with an animal collection that consisted of one red deer fawn, the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens has grown to house more than 1,400 rare and exotic animals and over 1,000 unique plant species. The Jacksonville Zoo is a non-profit organization and is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). It is open year-round, seven days a week, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. and is located on Jacksonville’s north side at 370 Zoo Parkway, one-half mile east from I-95. The Zoo is open until 6 p.m. on weekends and holidays from March to Labor Day. For more information on the Zoo, log on to
www.jacksonvillezoo.orgTo view Jacksonville Zoo's web page on Zoo and Aquarium Visitor, go to: http://www.zandavisitor.com/forumtopicdetail-97-Jacksonville_Zoo_and_Gardens
