Before the Swedish Stork project started, 1954 was the last year that storks that bred in the wild in Sweden. Drainage of marshes and more intense agriculture led to their disappearance from the Swedish bird fauna.

In 1989 a project was started to re-introduce White Storks in Scania. They successfully bred in enclosures and the young were released. However they stayed the winter and continued to be fed artificially. The reason they did not migrate was they originated in Algeria.

When the project was altered to include captured N. European birds, some migrated and a few returned to breed with birds that were fed during the winter. The aim is to have 150 breeding pairs in Scania that can spend the winter in Africa and return as native breeding birds.

Though this pair is not in captivity and feed on worms, insects, amphibians and reptiles in the wild, they have not learnt to migrate south during the autumn and have to be artificially fed during the winter.

It is hoped that they will have young that meet others that will lead them to migrate to return in the spring. Storks pair for life.