Massa Marittima: An Oasis for Storks on their Way to Africa

In the middle of Italy, or Massa Marittima in the Alta Maremma to be more precise, there is an oasis for storks. The choice of location that welcomes these birds that have always been victims of hunting, is not at all accidental: the storks’ long migrational pause takes place exactly above the Italian peninsula and Alta Maremma continues to represent the link between the populations of Northern and Southern Italy, even though today it has been abandoned because animals killed off by double-barrelled shotguns have learned to avoid Italy, travelling instead along the Iberian peninsula, the Bosporus and the Middle East,.

The Stork centre at the Massa Marittima Carapax is therefore the only area of assistance in Central Italy for the storks that migrate to Africa and that continue to pass over the Italian
peninsula.

The centre allows visitors, both young and old, to see the animals up close: the public, in fact, can enter in the aviary that is as big as a soccer field; see the nesting areas, the construction of the nest and feeding of the young.
Created in 1994 in collaboration with the white stork association of Switzerland and the province of Grosseto, the local Hunting and Fishing Authority, and the Carapax centre, its purpose is to restore the historical migration pause of the white stork on the Italian peninsula.


(Portions of this article first appeared in "Toscana & Chianti News")
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