This report from the Wildlife Trust of India tells of the tragic deaths of more than 800 Asian Openbill Storks, Anastomus oscitans. The birds, mostly nestlings and juveniles, died when the banyan tree they were nesting in collapsed last week.
Asian Openbill Stork. Photo by Paul Cullen
“Most of the admitted birds are chicks and fledglings. Many are severely injured, with fractures on the wings and legs,” said Dr Phulmoni Gogoi, CWRC veterinarian, during a brief break from a series of operations on the rescued birds.
“About 26 birds have succumbed to their injuries; condition of 12 of the remaining birds is critical,” said CWRC veterinarian, Dr Prasanta Boro.
…
According to speculations the tree could have broken because of a combined effect of the weight of the birds and weakening of the tree due to termite infestation.
Goswami added, “This is the breeding season for these birds so the casualty includes a lot of young birds. We did not see any eggs, but about 15 or 20 juvenile birds were found alive by the locals today. The birds are not able to fly yet. However, they are safe as they are being looked after by the locals.”
A report from The Star in South Africa says that local villagers held a mass funeral and ceremony for the birds killed by the collapse:
“New Delhi – Scores of Buddhist villagers in India’s north-eastern state of Assam have performed a unique funeral ritual for more than 800 endangered storks that died after a tree where they were nesting fell.
…
The villagers, most of them farmers, considered the banyan tree sacred and believed that the storks were their guardian angels.
The Asian openbill storks died when the 200-year-old banyan tree that served as their colony crashed last week into a pond inside a Buddhist monastery some 300km east of state capital Guwahati, the IANS news agency reported.
“Five monks led the special funeral prayers at the monastery on Sunday as the incident of the banyan tree crashing and the subsequent deaths of so many storks is considered a bad omen,” Dibyadhar Shyam, a villager, told the IANS.”
This is a fine example of the close relationships that many cultures have with the birds that live around them but it is the first time that I’ve heard of such a large number dying in such tragic circumstances, and of local people holding special ceremonies to protect themselves from the consequences of the event.
Wikipedia tells me that there there are two species,of Openbillstorks, the African and the Indian, in the genus Anastomus (family Ciconiidae) and that the open bill is found only in adult birds. Storks have no syrinx and are thus mute, but not silent, their main aural communication being by bill-clattering when they meet at the roost. Thanks in advance to Paul Cullen for the use of his great photo of the Indian Openbill that shows why the bird is called what it is. You can see several galleries of Paul’s photos of Indian birds and landscapes here.
