Hyogo Park of the Oriental White Stork was established in 1999 as a research institution for breeding and reintroduction of the Oriental White Stork, a special natural monument of Japan. It also seeks to reintroduce the storks to the wild based on scientific theory. To attain these objectives, University of Hyogo has adopted a system since the park’s opening for university instructors to also work as researchers of the park. Hyogo Prefecture’s efforts to protect the Oriental White Stork goes back to 1955 when it founded the Oriental White Stork, Special Natural Monument, Protection Association and started to raise storks at a dedicated facility from 1965. Half a century has already passed since then. In 2005, the Hyogo Park of the Oriental White Stork finally started reintroducing the storks into the wild.
In the park’s public areas, you can observe captive Oriental White Storks in a particular cage. You stroll along the wetland amid rural scenery and you can also watch storks living and breeding in the wild.
In the park’s non-public areas, there are many cages where storks are raised for breeding, and trained for release into the wild. In 2014, the Graduate School of Regional Resource Management, University of Hyogo was established as Toyooka Geo & Konotori Campus within the park for education and research about the discovery, application and conservation of local natural, social, and cultural resources. The Hyogo Park of the Oriental White Stork is therefore not just a park, but a facility for reintroducing storks and for conducting various activities centered on the stork conservation.