By Tracey Olsen

The stork has long been regarded as a symbol of fertility, a scapegoat for nervous parents to explain away where children come from. However, I think one might be slightly perturbed if a Marabou Stork had to arrive on your porch bearing a new born baby. In Irvine Welsh’s book “Marabou Stork Nightmares” he describes these creatures, “Marabou Stork run this place and they are known to be nasty. Yes, even the vulture does not get such bad local press.” As “nasty” as they may appear to be, here in Kampala, the Marabou Storks have adapted to human settlement to become opportunistic pirates playing an important part in ecology and offering a natural twist to our urban environment.

In Pictures: The Marabou Stork
There are 19 species of stork and 15 of these are threatened. It was thought that the Marabou was a relative of the Ibis and Heron, but it is now believed that they may be more closely related to the Condor and other vultures, due to similar skeletal structures and the commonality of defecating on their legs as a cooling device. Most storks are well adapted fish eaters and some have a unique ability to snap their beaks closed in 0.025 seconds. Although these fish catching antics may not be a common sight for us in Kampala, our stork has some of its own special characteristics.

As well as being one of the ugliest looking creatures, the Marabou is also a contender for the bird with the longest wing span. The Andean Condor has a wingspan of 3m and wins the title. However the Marabou is one of the largest flying birds in the world, with a known wingspan of 2.87 m and there has been an unconfirmed report of one with a wingspan of 4.06m. Out of the 19 species of stork, the Marabou is the largest and despite this, is a majestic flyer that reaches great altitudes.

The Marabou’s startling appearance is due to a helping hand from evolution which granted the storks bald heads and necks to assist in their appetite for carrion, ensuring that their feathers are not soiled with blood and other body bits. In nature, we would find the Marabous gathered around carcasses with other scavengers, but in cities like Kampala, they are mainly spotted at rubbish dumps or can be seen keeping a watchful eye from rooftops and telephone poles.

Scarce across East Africa in the early 20th century, the Marabou Stork became more prevalent as human population increased. The rise in human waste and the consequent construction of food processing plants and rubbish dumps meant that the stork could get an easy meal. In Uganda, it is reported that the Marabou started arriving in the mid-1980s; a scavenger by nature, the stork was attracted to the piles of rubbish that had accumulated during two decades of civil war. Apart from scavenging, the Marabou also feeds on small rodents, reptiles, insects, baby crocodiles and flamingos.

Marabou Storks can become rather tame, waiting around for scraps just a few feet away from meat workers. There was an incident in Kenya where a Marabou swallowed a neglected butcher’s knife. The spotless knife was found a few days later, regurgitated by the stork. Regurgitation is used for any indigestible products the Marabou may consume but this instance is a strong indicator of how tough this bird actually is.

It is interesting that one seldom sees a baby Marabou. You may catch a glimpse of a smaller bald head poking out of one of the nests, but that’s about it. This is due to the fact that the young Marabou is dependent on its parents - feeding on regurgitated food - for up to 115 days. The Marabou Love Nest is made up of coarse sticks and lined with twigs and leaves and is usually located in treetops. The male attracts a female by inflating his gular sac (the pink pouch on the throat) and the back of their necks turn a blue-green during this wooing process. The female lays between 1 and 4 chalky white eggs and both parents incubate for 29-31 days. The young Marabou reaches sexual maturity at 4 years old and can live up to 25 years.

When we speak of “the Marabou”, it is generally thought that we are referring to the African Marabou which are common and wide spread in Southern Africa, but there are three species of Marabou Stork, one African and two Asian – the Greater Adjutant and Lesser Adjutant, so called due to their upright military stature. The Adjutant tail feathers were used in the making of hats and feather boas, hard to believe really considering the storks’ penchant for offal and carrion. The Asian Marabous are similar in appearance to our African Marabous, but where our Marabou numbers seem to be increasing, their Asian counterparts are now endangered.

The endangered status of the Greater and Lesser Adjutant is mainly due to the felling of trees which are the storks’ primary nesting places. Deaths also occur due to electrocution, poaching and negligent driving by garbage truck drivers. In the Indian city of Assam, initiatives have been taken to try and halt the rapid decline of the storks. Veterinarians have struck deals with the local villagers offering to take care of their livestock in return for the villagers to protect the tall trees. Even more extreme efforts have been made to save the stork. Due to deforestation, the storks were forced to build their nests in less suitable trees with thinner branches, hatchlings and nests were falling out of the tree tops as the branches broke. The fall was not killing the young birds, but rendering them prey to crows and dogs. The rescue plan was to tie safety nets around the tree trunks to catch the hatchlings which were then returned to their nests with not much fuss from the parents. Because Marabous nest in colonies, it sometimes proved difficult to return the baby to the right parents, in these cases the birds were hand-reared. In Kampala we have not had to face this kind of situation, in fact, some may consider the Marabou a pest; but just because it hasn’t happened, doesn’t mean it won’t. Moloy Baruah, who helped implement the Rapid Action Project in India points out that this “scavenging bird has a great role in cities where garbage is still dumped in selected places without any scientific disposal method.” Like India, in Kampala you don’t have to go far before you start spotting impromptu rubbish dumps with no official commercial means of disposal.

In nature the stork plays an important part in ecology by consuming rotting carcasses and breaking through thick hides of larger animals, allowing smaller scavengers to access the carrion and hence speeding up the decomposition process. But in this urban jungle, the Marabou consumes offal, rotting meat and who knows what else whilst it picks through our rubbish dumps helping to prevent the spreading of pathogens and diseases in an already vulnerable environment. Like the Dung Beetle, the Marabou Stork might not have the best of jobs, but as the saying goes, someone has to do it.

“Beauty isn’t everything” and the Marabou stork may be one of the most bizarre looking creatures, but in fact, its ugly looks and appetite for the less desirable have ensured that it is not often made a meal of. Pest, pirate or perfectly ugly, the Marabou has a certain charm. Like wise grandfathers, they watch over us and like wise grandfathers are deserve our respect.

FACT BOX:
* Weight 7kg – 9kg
* Height 1.5m
* Kaloli is the L’Ugandan word for Marabou Stork, but translated literally Kaloli means Charles.
* Genus Species: Leptoptilos crumeniferus (genus meaning slender wing, species referring to the throat pouch).
* Marabou Storks have hollow leg and toe bones – an important adaptation for flight.
* The natural colour of the Marabou’s legs is a dark grey to black but appears to be white due to the squirting of excrement on to the legs.
* Marabou Storks are attracted to grass fires. They walk ahead of the advancing flames snatching fleeing animals.
* The Marabou’s pouch is not used for food storage but rather for courtship and as a cooling device due to the mass of blood vessels under the skin of the pouch.
* Marabou’s need to eat more than 700g of food a day.
* Marabou’s are mostly quiet as they have no syrinx muscles. Beak clattering is used as a greeting ritual with partners in the nest. They are also known to grunt and snore.
* Juvenile beaks take up to two years to reach adult size.

Sources:
www.krugerpark.co.za
www.seaworld.org
www.indyzoo.com
www.amazilia.net
www.kenyabirds.org.uk
www.safaricamlive.com
www.wildlifetrustofindia.org
www.wildwatch.com