IN December Mtunzini resident Hugh Chittenden was informed of woolly-necked storks feeding chicks in a nest in Nicky Nicolson’s farm garden 6km west of Mtunzini.
A camera was placed adjacent to the nest to obtain information on prey species being fed to the chicks.
The first photos showed that the only natural prey brought to the nest were frogs.
They were brought in fair numbers, with five frogs recorded in one specific delivery.
The frog species were identified as the Guttural Toad (Amietophrynus gutturalis).
Hugh noticed that among the regurgitated food delivered to the nest was a strange looking pink substance that appeared to be artificial food cut into small squares.
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This was delivered virtually on a daily basis and eagerly fed on by the chicks.
The quantity regurgitated was large enough to fill two cupped hands and was invariably eaten within 10 minutes of being delivered.
On closer examination, the substance was identified as polony.
Early warning
Hugh sent the photos to a veterinary friend, Pierre Hensburg, who warned of a possible disastrous outcome with chicks eating such large quantities of polony and that at the very least, the chicks would get severe diarrhoea.
In early January the first chick died and it was assumed to have succumbed from the daily polony intake.
Processed meat products are full of artificial preservatives, food colourants, high levels of nitrates (cancerous at high levels) and excessive levels of salt. One needs only look at the shelf life of polony and other similar ‘vienna’ sausage products to realize how loaded they are with these preservatives.
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Second chick death
Before the end of January, a second chick also died after several weeks of very slow growth.
Since exposing this incident in the immediate neighbourhood, a number of people have admitted to feeding artificial meat products such as polony to birds at feeding tables.
This pair of storks was seen flying in from Mtunzini about 5km away. The kindness of some well-meaning residents who fed the storks, led to the death of their chicks.
Meat product handouts are absolutely not necessary as there is an abundance of frogs for the resident stork population.
Hugh appeals to birders who feed, not to feed polony, a product that is not healthy for humans and extremely bad for birds, especially when passed on to chicks.
A far healthier alternative is mince meat or suet, which, if fed, should be done in very small quantities.
Feeding birds is in most cases done for the benefit of those that feed, and not entirely beneficial to birds that often become dependent on human handouts.
The dominant prey for woolly-necked storks is frogs and there is no shortage of this prey during the summer breeding season.
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