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April is stork breading season - Click 'Details' for more information
Hunawihr is home to a Centre de Reintroduction Cigognes Loutres, a stork preserve. In 1983 only three pairs of wild storks remained in the Alsace area. The stork is a symbol for the region although most people associate them with deliverying babies. The decline in the number of wild storks was due to hunting, electrocution, pesticides, and the effect of droughts as they migrate to Africa. The center tries to break the storks of their migratory instinct by keeping storks for the first three years of their lives in large aviary cages. When they reach maturity, they are released. In one area they had several nests full of baby storks.
