Many prodigal sons have found a place in Dutch nature again – from raven to eagle owl and stork

I saw my first storks in Hungary, in 1982. They sailed with their broad, black and white wings over the lowland near Lake Balaton, beak and legs red. They nested on roofs, haystacks, telegraph poles. In the same year, the Netherlands had the very last wild breeding pair at Grafhorst in the IJsseldelta. After that the stork was extinct with us.

A trend that was also apparent elsewhere in Western Europe. At the end of the fifties, alarming reports were already received, such as this from ornithologist Ko Zweeres, also editor of the General Trade Journal: “It is starting to look alarmingly that the time is near when we will look in vain for the return of our storks! In Austria, too, people fear that they will have to miss the storks.” The German ecologist and migratory bird expert Holger Schulz notes in his book on storks in 1954: “The number of red-billed birds – which can be read every year in the newspapers – is declining. Inescapable and terribly fast.”

Not only the stork met this fate, but also a variety of species such as peregrine falcon, small and great egret, eagle owl, raven, badger, otter, beaver, large fire butterfly, black grouse and caddis damselfly. The cause of this decline was caused by pesticides, hunting, fragmentation of the environment, urbanization and polluted environment.

Forty years ago the Netherlands was storkless. It was only found far beyond the national borders, such as in Hungary. Now the stork is an indispensable part of the meadow landscape, just like the egret. The stork experienced a spectacular comeback from being gone forever, or so it seemed, to more than 1,650 breeding pairs this season.

Bird watchers discovered the first breeding pair of the great egret in the Oostvaardersplassen in 1978. Our country now has 340 pairs and just under 2,000 transiters and hibernators, according to Vogelbescherming Nederland. The snow-white splendor of this graceful wading bird almost killed him: from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century it was fashionable to adorn ladies’ hats with its decorative feathers. Since the moment that birds were legally protected, in the Netherlands from 1912, the species has been able to gradually recover. Fields full of egrets or storks are no longer uncommon.

A condition for reintroduction is that not only the species itself is restored

Key word for this miraculous return is reintroduction, or the deliberate release of indigenous animals, so that a healthy population can arise. Legal protection and creating a cleaner living environment or offering nest boxes also contribute to recovery or increase. In any case, human interference is the benchmark.

“Bringing back a primitive species may pay off a past debt: we make up for what we lost,” says the standard work Wanted animals. Reintroductions of animals in the Netherlands (2021) by Mark Zekhuis, Louis van Oort and Luc Hoogenstein. Also Appeared or disappeared. More than a century of Dutch breeding birds on the move (2021) by Sovon Vogelonderzoek Netherlands focuses on the return of birds. It is emphatically about birds of native origin, not about wild exotics such as ring-necked parakeets or egyptian goose.

Three beaver pairs

A condition for reintroduction is that not only the species itself is restored, but also the natural environment in which it occurred. It is animal and biotope. A good example of restocking is the beaver. Until 1988, seeing a beaver in the Dutch wetlands was impossible, simply because they were not there. On October 1 of that year, Minister Gerrit Braks (Agriculture, CDA), accompanied by a great deal of media attention, released three pairs of beavers from a box in the Biesbosch, “which means that after almost 200 years the beaver was back in Dutch nature”, reports Wanted animals. But the joy was short-lived. “Some 30 years later you can encounter these sturdy aquatic mammals in many places […]. In fact, in certain areas there are already so many that they are starting to arouse resistance here and there. This is perhaps the best-known example of reintroductions in the Netherlands and part of the associated problems.”

The success in Switzerland was resonated in Germany and also in the Netherlands

Reintroduction seems like a nice and relatively simple course of action: you make up for what has disappeared, you exchange loss for wealth, meagerness turns into biodiversity. But there are environmental and social problems associated with it, as the impact of the beaver shows. It gnaws at trees and blocks waterways, it weakens dikes. And don’t forget that in the two hundred year absence of the beaver, the Dutch landscape and natural habitat have changed radically, and above all: shrunk.

Raven, stork large fire butterfly: three species that apparently have nothing to do with each other. The fact that these three can be seen in nature today is due to the phenomenon of re-release that is also present today rewilding is called, development of new nature. You can also question the artificiality of this, as writer Koos van Zomeren argues in All birds (2017): “You used to see a stork in the meadow because it wanted to, nowadays there is a stork in the meadow because we want it.”

In this context one speaks of ‘desired nature’, ‘makeable nature’ or even ‘gardening with animals’. The authors of Wanted animals stress that pressures on nature, climate change and the imminent disappearance of species are making ‘reintroductions more and more of a focus’. Not only the beaver, but also the stork is a symbol of successful reintroduction.

Ingenious breeding program

The bird has traveled a long journey, starting in the 1960s in the Swiss village of Altreu. Max Blösch, handball player at the Olympic level and sports teacher, lived here, who missed the storks of his youth in the post-war period. He mapped out an ingenious breeding program with birds from North Africa, Hungary, Poland and even Russia. They hatched in special cages. He initially released the descendants, but they went on a trek in the fall and never returned. He decided to breed the next generation of offspring in cages as well. These birds lost their natural migratory urge. He let the third generation fly around freely. These birds did start to breed in the vicinity of Altreu and thus formed a new population. When Blösch died in 1997, Switzerland had 170 breeding pairs.

The success in Switzerland was resonated in Germany and also in the Netherlands. The first Stork Village Liesvelt was opened here in Groot-Ammers in the Alblasserwaard in 1969, an initiative of Vogelbescherming Nederland. Here, storks were bred in the same way as in Altreu and then gradually released into the wild via twelve outstations spread across the country.

Black-glossy fairytale animal

An indigenous bird such as the raven, an imaginative black and shiny fairytale animal, is also back in our country. But not on its own either. In 1900 he was “wiped out,” as stated in Wanted animals, to the chagrin of bird lovers. In the 1960s, breeding in aviaries was started in his former biotope on the Veluwe, Utrechtse Heuvelrug and in Boswachterij Dwingeloo. Finally, it was not until the 1980s that he began to increase in numbers; now the Netherlands has about 135 to 155 wild breeding pairs.

Another example of human intervention is the return of the eagle owl, a giant owl that is considered very wild. That’s just appearance. Its presence is due to the release of the young of captive birds, including in the Eifel in the 1960s. So, just like the storks, they were bred eagle owls. Since the 1980s, they have been breeding in considerable numbers in the wild: 2020 counted forty breeding pairs, including in the quarries of South Limburg, near Winterswijk and on the Veluwe. There the eagle owl is also a formidable predator of the peregrine falcon, another bird that is one of the sought-after animals. For example, one reintroduction interferes with another welcomed species.

We can safely consider the return of some species as a great miracle

You can also raise butterflies in captivity, as the large fire butterfly proves. This bright orange-red butterfly lives exclusively in a few low moor areas, including the Weerribben. It is critically endangered and has been declining sharply since the 1950s. It is hoped that the butterfly will be preserved by releasing cultivated specimens and targeted management. It once occurred in Great Britain, which is why the Dutch fire butterflies were transported there, but this failed.

Not every reintroduction has a chance of success. Releasing black grouse on the Sallandse Heuvelrug, for example, turned out to be a futile attempt. Around 1940 there were more than 5,000 roosters in the Netherlands, at the end of the seventies there were still 450 and after 1997 there are only a few specimens in Salland. He may disappear despite all efforts. Deterioration of the habitat due to high nitrogen deposition, acidification and predation pressure are disastrous for the species. To save him, specimens were released from Sweden, captive-bred animals. It lacks these birds, like Wanted animals states, to “anti-predator behavior”, which makes it impossible or impossible for them to survive in the wild.

Nevertheless, optimism prevails: 65 percent of the reintroductions have been successful, according to Sovon Bird Research. Between 1900 and now, 12 species have disappeared and 49 have been added. Actually, in the early days of the reintroductions there was no standard, everyone could more or less start breeding and releasing animals. It was not until 2008 that rules were established with points of attention such as which animals, the originality of the species, necessity, the chance of recovery, possible damage and social or ecological consequences.

Domestic cats and foxes

For example, some bird enthusiasts point to the stork as the cause of the decline in the number of meadow birds, because the stork preys on the juveniles. This misunderstanding is persistent. Meadow birds have the most to fear from feral house cats, foxes, herring gulls, buzzards and ravens. Coincidentally, the latter is also a desired bird.

Not every new species has entered our nature through human activity. The great and little egret, crane, osprey and white-tailed eagle have established themselves within the country’s borders on their own, a return that we can safely regard as a great miracle. In any case, also proof of the resilience of nature.

Their spontaneous, free settlement puts reintroduction programs in a different light: if these species have independently recolonized our country, stork, raven and eagle owl might have done the same. Would the introduction of desired species into a desired nature have been superfluous? No, definitely not. Nature lovers are still happy with egret or eagle owl, fire butterfly or otter. They belong to our world as it once was and is now again.