Rewilding charity seeks views on reintroducing storks to London

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White storks largely disappeared from the skies above London centuries ago

The image of a stork carrying a baby in a bundle dangling from its beak, on its way to deliver the child to its new parents, is as old as the birds and the bees.

But the long-legged birds largely disappeared from the skies above London centuries ago due to hunting and habitat loss - though babies continued to be born in the capital despite their absence.

Now a conservation charity is asking Londoners for their views on the potential return of white storks to the capital.

The birds are known to thrive in urban settings on the continent, and urban rewilding organisation Citizen Zoo is conducting an appraisal on making London a "white stork-friendly city".

White storks are known to thrive in urban landscapes

Citizen Zoo said it is reaching out to boroughs across the capital to gauge their response and surveying the public about the birds.

Since 2016, a white stork project in Sussex has sought to create new colonies of rehabilitated injured storks, with the first successful breeding in 2020.

In the four decades before the start of that project there were just 27 records of white storks across Greater London.

But between 2016 and 2023 there have been 472 sightings in the capital, with the numbers increasing year-on-year, conservationists said.

Elliot Newton, co-founder and director of rewilding at Citizen Zoo, said white storks are a "talismanic, iconic species that really do draw and attract attention".

He added: "You look up into the skies and see a white stork, it's quite obvious.

"And if you look across European landscapes, this is a bird that can actually thrive in urban landscapes, on chimneys, on pylons, and are associated with thriving in urban settings.

"What we want to see is how can we make London a more white stork-friendly environment, and embrace it for its ability to inspire people about the nature we can and should have close to where we live."

A white stork project in Sussex had its first successful breeding in 2020

Mr Newton said it is "completely within our will as a species to choose the environments that we build around us and we can make that conscious choice to integrate more nature into our cities, and that will bring a whole wealth of benefits."

The survey of Londoners is being led by the University of Brighton, with two phases that mirror a national survey conducted as part of the white stork project in Sussex.

The national survey found overall people were very positive towards the species, even if they had never seen storks before, although there was a lack of knowledge about things such as the stork's diet, and even what they looked like.

But a "relatively small" number of people - often those who were ecologists, conservationists or birders - were not in favour of the reintroduction, largely because it was not a threatened species and they thought it should not be a priority for action.

The first phase of the London study has involved surveying a representative sample of 1,000 Londoners, and a second phase is asking residents and frequent visitors to give their view on white storks and their place in the capital.

Mr Newton added that "nature has a fantastic tendency to surprise us" and it is possible storks could establish themselves in London again without human help.

According to European folklore, a white stork is responsible for bringing babies to new parents.

The tale was popularised by a Hans Christian Andersen story from 1839 called The Storks.

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