A Study on Oriental White Stork’s Recognition of Local People in Multiple Municipalities Related to the Re-introduction

Abstract

In this study, questionnaire surveys in Toyooka City, Hyogo Prefecture, where the first storks were released into the wild, Unnan City, Shimane Prefecture, where field breeding has been successful, and Kamisu City, Ibaraki Prefecture, where field breeding is expected, were conducted in order to compare the perceptions of storks. In Kamisu City, where the percentage of sightings was low, awareness of the stork itself was high, and the stork was viewed positively as a "environmental barometer". As a hypothesis, it is proposed that the stork must be considered a local resource after several years of successful breeding in the field. For a stable domestic habitat, it is suggested that the stork must first be accepted as a "environmental barometer ", and that after several years of successful breeding, it can become a local resource.