Dave Taylor's African Safari: Scavengers and Decomposers - Marabou Stork

Scavengers and Decomposers
Marabou Stork
Page 9

Leptoptilos crumeniferus

Length: 150 cm (59")

Wing Spread: 260 cm (102")

Status: Common, especially around towns with dumps.

Habitat: Marabou storks are found throughout the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem wherever there is sufficient food in the form of carrion or prey animals on which to feed. They are often found near garbage dumps.

Food: Marabous are both scavengers and predators. They will hunt flamingos in places where they occur in large numbers. They will also catch snakes and rodents. They can be found working the areas around grass fires, cleaning up the burnt and injured animals.

They are often seen around kills and carcasses. Unlike vultures, they lack the sharp, curved beaks needed for picking bits of meat off bone. Instead, they content themselves with picking through the leftovers looking for chunks of meat and bone.

They do not need to eat every day but will consume up to two kilograms (4.5 pounds) of meat when it is available.

Young marabous must be fed vertebrates if they are to get the needed calcium to strengthen their bones. Any vertebrate will do but they must total about one third of the young bird's diet. They are fed frogs, tadpoles and mice.

Social System/Behavior: Marabou storks pair up and breed during the dry season. They usually select a nest site near fresh water. The nestlings need to have water daily. The parents bring them a pint at a time, carrying it back in their crops. This goes on for the four months the chicks are in the nest. The water is needed to keep the nestlings from overheating. They cool themselves by relieving themselves down their legs. The liquid evaporates, cooling the blood in their legs which then cools the body.

Another advantage of nesting near water in the dry season is that the parent birds can more easily catch catfish as they are forced into shallower water by the drought.

Both parents share the task of rearing the young. The nest is built in a flat-topped acacia tree about 10 meters (30 feet) high. They will nest on cliffs if there are no suitable trees available. It takes a week to make the nest that will be a meter (yard) wide.

The female lays two to five eggs. The number depends on how well fed she is. Both parents incubate the nest. One month after laying, the egg hatches. At two months old, the chicks are fully grown but cannot fly. It will be another two months before they are able to leave the nest. Only one out of four make it to adulthood.

Only about a fifth of the adult marabou storks mate each year.

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