130925-studie-wildlife-comeback-in-europe

agriculture [4, 6] . It is also possible that changing
climatic conditions in eastern Europe may be
driving eastward expansion in the range of the
species, but this has not been confirmed as yet [41] .
Conversely, expansion of irrigated agriculture
in Spain resulted in an increase in food availability
for the species [4, 42] . Moreover, the invasive
Louisiana crayfish, Procambarus clarkii, which was
introduced to southwestern Europe from South
America, is now an important food resource for
White storks in Iberia, and this has contributed
to the increase in population size and range
expansion of the species in this region [43–45] .
White storks in Iberia and France have been
utilising open landfill sites for foraging since the
1990s [46–50] , a behaviour that was recently observed
in the eastern population for the first time [51] .
Year-round availability of food has enabled an
increasing number of White storks in southwestern
Europe to forego migration and overwinter
on their breeding grounds [6, 42, 48, 52] , which may have
positive effects on the population [4, 30, 53, 54] . However,
open landfills will soon be closed under the EU
Landfill Directive [55] and the resulting impacts
on the western population of White storks are
uncertain.
Targeted conservation action in the form of
reintroduction projects has contributed to the
recovery of White stork populations in a number
of countries, including the Netherlands, France
and Italy, while also enabling the recolonisation of
countries in which the species became extinct, such
as Belgium, Switzerland and Sweden [4, 5, 30] . However,
these projects are controversial, as reintroduced
storks do not demonstrate natural migration
behaviour and remain on the breeding grounds
Threat Description Impact
Residential and
commercial
development
Loss of foraging areas and breeding sites.
Medium
Agricultural
intensification
Agricultural
abandonment
Transportation and
service corridors
Hunting and
collecting
Persecution/
control
Natural system
modifications
Pollution from
agriculture
Especially loss of habitat (e.g. loss of hay
meadows, grassland cultivation, crop changes,
overgrazing), but also pesticide use.
Abandonment of pastoral grassland and
afforestation of farmland.
Collision with and electrocution from overhead
powerlines.
Hunting, mainly during migration and in
wintering areas.
Destruction of nests on electricity pylons or other
structures for maintenance.
Drainage of wet meadows and inland wetlands.
Flood prevention and water-level regulation.
Excessive use of pesticides, especially in wintering
grounds.
Table 3.
Major threats that
drove White stork
decline and may
still constrain the
population [5, 10, 26, 27] .
High
High
High
Low
Low
High
High
183