A Population Viability Analysis (PVA) for Re-introduction of the Oriental White Stork (Ciconia boyciana) in Korea

The Oriental White Stork (Ciconia boyciana) is a representative wetland species distributed across East Asia. The species has been declined to face the threat of species extinctions with estimation of at about 3000 individuals. In order to re-introduce the endangered storks in the field, we developed a baseline model using the program VORTEX, performed sensitivity test, and finally suggested an ideal model based on results of the sensitivity test. The baseline model predicted 12.5% extinction probability with mean time to first extinction of 82.0 year. Sensitivity test revealed that two demographic variables (first-year mortality and percent of adult female breeding) had the greatest impacts on population persistence. Thus, corrected model improved the population persistence, where the extinction probability decreased to 1.0% in 100 years by changing values of two variables within a range of applicable to the population. Our models for stork re-introduction suggest this population will be stable by improving first-year mortality and adult female fecundity.