Stork

see also: Etymology of Stork

The storks are Oiseau X wader S migrating S pertaining to the kind Ciconia and with the family of the Ciconiidé S. There are several species (see Ciconiidé S), two more known being Ciconia will nigra , the black Cigogne, and especially Ciconia ciconia , the white Cigogne. It is a carnivorous bird which nourishes primarily worms of ground, moles, frogs, small snakes, rodents and sometimes of fish. Each summer, a family of storks consumes approximately 250 kilos of food. It is a African migratory bird which comes to reproduce in Europe by borrowing two different layouts. One circumvents the the Mediterranean by the East to reach the zones of nesting being located in the Eastern European countries. The other way passes above the strait of Gibraltar, Spain to reach France. 300 000 storks which share Europe belong to two migrating populations. " orientales" , most (9 out of 10), spend the winter in Africa of the East and the South and arrive each spring in the European Eastern European countries after having crossed strait of the the Bosphorus. " occidentales" (Alsatian, Spanish, etc) return from the the Sahel by the Straits of Gibraltar. One speaks about Instinct of migration, because the animal carries in him as of its birth, the need to migrate whereas it cannot fly yet (a training requires). At the time of its voyage, the stork locates the way of the return visually. A recent study could show that part of the brain of the stork contained Magnétite, which helps certainly it to find its way. One finds storks in France, Normandy, in South-west and of course in Alsace which adopted it like animal totem. The beautiful wader was formerly the estival ornament of the high Alsatian roofs. Victim, during its migrations, of the European electric lines and the hunters in Africa, the bird symbol of Alsace was represented more only by one ten couples about 1975. Thanks to the ornithologists who mobilized themselves for the sédentariser, several tens of couples nest again in the area. In the center of Hunawihr, in the Haut-Rhin, two hundred storks are maintained in pension behind nettings. At the end of three years, they lose the instinct to migrate and can be slackened. Nourished well, they fear neither the cold nor snow.

Legends

Since always, one says that the stork brings the children to their mother by the way of the airs. Thus, one tells with the children that to have a little brother or a little sister, it is necessary to deposit a sugar on the edge of the window. (Like the corbel of Jean of the Fountain, the stork releases its parcel when it seizes delicacy). In Alsace, one says that if a stork flies in close-cropped mound above an young woman, it will await a baby in the year.

Reproduction

In the storks, it is almost impossible to distinguish the male from the female without to have seen them with work. Generally, it is the male, sunken the first of migration, which invites the female to divide its nest. They are greeted by claquetant nozzle, the head reversed on the back. Sometimes, of the competitions for the possession of the nest degenerate into bloody combat. When the agreement is successful, through parades and of caresses, the coupling gives place to daring acrobatics. Generally, the Oiselle must be held upright, while its partner beats wings to balance while accroupissant himself on it.

The stork lays an egg until obtaining some between 4 and 6, each one with 48h. of interval. The gestation period is approximately 33 days. Without awaiting the end of the laying, the parents take turns to brood. Before settling the wader airs the bottom of the nest with blows of nozzle, then turns over eggs for distributing heat well. After 33 days of incubation, the 4 or 6 laid eggs each one to 48 h. of interval will give rise to oisillons. A cigogneau assistance its junior to be born by picorant the shell. Sometimes less vigorous, the last born are often badly nourished and die, eaten by their groins.

Nothing easier for the increasingly many Alsatian stockbreeders, than to make hatch eggs out of incubator, then to maintain the small ones with the heat under lamps with IR (infra-red). Of instinct, the oisillon is drawn up and opera hat of the nozzle to the hollow of the feeder hand. The cigogneaux ones are fed like their parents with poultry meat offals. Before reaching its maximum weight, four kilos, each cigogneau can consume 20 to 30 kilos of meat. The artificially nourished adults are more prolific. Certain females lay 12 eggs per annum. They will brood of them only 4 or 5, the others being left with the good care of the stockbreeder.

Reference

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