Behaviors of the Oriental White Stork (Ciconia boyciana) in a semi-natural enclosure

Environmental factors affect animal behavior in a variety of ways. Compared to animals in the wild, captive animals are kept in narrow enclosures, suffer higher densities and are more intensely affected by human activities. Therefore, behavioral elasticity is likely modified to some extent in captive animals, which may negatively affect the possibility of successful release of endangered species in the wild. In our study we investigated the behaviors of the Oriental White Stork (Ciconia boyciana) in a semi-natural enclosure from 15 October 2005 to 8 September 2006 in Hefei Wildlife Park, China. The behavioral data were collected by instantaneous and scan sampling methods, and we analyzed the relationships between environmental factors and their behaviors. The amounts of time spent on maintenance behavior (foraging and moving) were at similar levels for birds reproducing multibroods (Group 1), birds reproducing one brood (Group 2) and birds without reproduction (Group 3). On the other hand, the amount of time spent on elastic behavior (defensive, breeding and preening) for Group 3 was lower than that for Groups 1 and 2. The behavioral pattern of the storks exhibited marked seasonal changes, which may be a function of ambient temperature, human disturbanc, and the length of daylight, but not of wind intensity. Our results provide basic data for future conservation measures of this endangered species.