The prolonged drought is leading to a decline in the endangered woodstork population.
Wildlife experts say it works like this: Less rain means smaller freshwater wetlands, the woodstork's habitat. Small wetlands means fewer alligators, which means more racoons, which means fewer woodstorks.
And that's if the woodstorks nest at all. Georgia Department of Natural Resources biologist Brad Winn says, woodstork nests have declined by about half since last year, to about 1,000. Winn says, "Some years, without any water to begin with, if there's not enough spring rain or winter rain, then the birds won't even nest."
Winn says, woodstorks will come back when the drought eases. He describes the endangered animal as a success for the Endangered Species Act.
In the last major drought, they got down to 500 nests.
