Kocaeli Municipality Uses GPS to Track Stork Chick Atlas’s Migration

Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality established the Düşkün Leylekler Evi (Stork House) in Ormanya, where the rescued stork pair Pişmaniye and Bulut raised their chick, named Atlas. From hatching, Atlas’s development was monitored by veterinarians and biologists, with a 24/7 live‑stream allowing the public to watch the bird’s growth.

The municipality, together with Doğa Koruma ve Milli Parklar, fitted Atlas with a satellite‑GPS transmitter after health checks and banding. The device will record the chick’s migration path, stop‑over sites and travel distances, providing data to improve understanding of global stork migration routes and to identify key conservation areas.