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The history of the southern florida usa wood stork mycteria americana population

1986; Wilson Ornithological Society; Volume: 98; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

1938-5447

James A. Kushlan, Paula C. Frohring,

Wildlife Ecology and Conservation

r.-The largest segment of the North American Wood Stork (Mycteria americana) population traditionally nested in southern Florida, where its perceived population decrease over the last 50 years resulted in its addition to the Federal endangered species list. Previously published reports placed the southern Florida population at 30,000 to 100,000 storks. A complete search of published and unpublished records of Wood Storks nesting in southern Florida, however, failed to support such a long-term population decrease. We cannot demonstrate that the historical population was any larger than it was in 1967, when there were 9400 pairs. The Corkscrew-Big Cypress nesting group, not that of the Everglades, was historically the most numerically important population segment. The historic nesting location for southernmost Wood Storks was not inland in the Everglades but on Cape Sable, which has been subject to the effects of drainage canals. The population size of several decades ago is irrelevant to current conservation strategy because the southern Florida marshes have been irrevocably altered reducing their ability to support storks. We can document a population decrease of 75% from 1967 to 1981-82 in southern Florida, a time frame coincident with the operation of water management policies in the Everglades. Wood Storks recently have begun abandoning traditional colony sites in Everglades National Park in favor of sites in shallow reservoirs to the north. Drainage of the Big Cypress Swamp and maintenance of seasonally excessive water levels in the Everglades of Everglades National Park account for the stork's repeated nesting failure and population decrease. Water levels can be manipulated in the Everglades to enhance nesting success and assist in population stabilization. Received 5 Aug. 1985, accepted I Feb. 1986. The population stability of the Wood Stork (Mycteria americana) in North America long has been a matter of concern and comment. Reproductive failures and apparent population decreases have been well publicized for decades (e.g., Sprunt and Kahl 1960, Allen 1964), and have resulted in the recent addition of this population to the United States Federal list of endangered species (USFWS 1984). Although the North American nesting range of the species includes most of the Gulf and Atlantic coastal plain, the largest population segment traditionally nested in southern Florida. It is the decrease of this population that has created the perception of instability for the North American population as a whole. Thus the history of southern Florida Wood Storks is of overriding importance in evaluating the trend of the U.S. population. The decreasing status of North American and southern Florida Wood Storks has been described repeatedly (Allen 1958, 1964; Allen et al. 1958; Sprunt and Kahl 1960; Kahl 1964; Robertson and Kushlan 1974; Kushlan ' Dept. Biological Sciences, East Texas State Univ., Commerce, Texas 75428.