Flamingo No.3 - Journal of FSG published

Jana

Jana

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Link to latest issue of Flamingo: http://www.flamingo-sg.org/wp-conte...JkTeLYRshLuDVJcSQDg-afzyTKhWDBxwFhMVlmwA7uogQ

Aside of interesting articles about wild and captive flamingos, this issue contains also some figures:

Captive zoo population registered in ZIMS database in Nov 20:
Greater flamingo - 8610
Caribbean flamingo - 6234
Chilean flamingo - 6167
Lesser flamingo - 1463
Andean flamingo - 31
James flamingo - 6

Figures from South american wild flamingo census that´s happened this year:
Chilean flamingo - 515 530
James flamingo - 154 001
Andrean flamingo - 77 949
- note that these census numbers are higher than current official population estimates for all 3 species! It´s time for revision.
 
Jana said:
Link to latest issue of Flamingo: http://www.flamingo-sg.org/wp-conte...JkTeLYRshLuDVJcSQDg-afzyTKhWDBxwFhMVlmwA7uogQ

Aside of interesting articles about wild and captive flamingos, this issue contains also some figures:

Captive zoo population registered in ZIMS database in Nov 20:
Greater flamingo - 8610
Caribbean flamingo - 6234
Chilean flamingo - 6167
Lesser flamingo - 1463
Andean flamingo - 31
James flamingo - 6

Figures from South american wild flamingo census that´s happened this year:
Chilean flamingo - 515 530
James flamingo - 154 001
Andrean flamingo - 77 949
- note that these census numbers are higher than current official population estimates for all 3 species! It´s time for revision.
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I assume that the 5 James flamingos are in captivity in South America ?
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
For some reason I was under the impression that it was only Slimbridge that had a single ancient James flamingo.
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Slimbrige had for long time used the PR trope of - come to visit all 6 existing species of falmingo! On the other hand, Berlin is silent about theirs.

Many years ago, the US zoos agreed and sent all surviving high Andrean flamingos from Americn zoos to Slimbridge in order to consolidate them and give them some hope for breeding. That didn´t materialize, these species don´t like wet British summers and dampf winters. Berlin has a smaller group that breeds from time to time but Slimbrige never came to the idea to send at least their younger/fitter birds there to create a big colony. And so we will see slow demise of both in Europe and in captivity as well.
 
Jana said:
Slimbrige had for long time used the PR trope of - come to visit all 6 existing species of falmingo! On the other hand, Berlin is silent about theirs.

Many years ago, the US zoos agreed and sent all surviving high Andrean flamingos from Americn zoos to Slimbridge in order to consolidate them and give them some hope for breeding. That didn´t materialize, these species don´t like wet British summers and dampf winters. Berlin has a smaller group that breeds from time to time but Slimbrige never came to the idea to send at least their younger/fitter birds there to create a big colony. And so we will see slow demise of both in Europe and in captivity as well.
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Quite a shame really, I agree.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Quite a shame really, I agree.
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The only other captive zoo group I am avare is La Paz zoo who collected some chicks 3 years ago, They are not in ZIMS and I have never found if any are still alive (personally I don´t believe so, based on few minutes short video the zoo published showing very poor / improvised conditions they were kept in).
That place should be Vesty Pakos Zoo, in La Paz, Bolivia. according to that article
Bolivian Zoo Unveils 1st Condor Born in Captivity, 14 Flamingos

Edit - it seems that zoo had done major upgrade of their flamingo pen and last year at least 10 flamingos were still alive. Nice.
 
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Hopefully some cooperation could be made with La Paz zoo to obtain more birds. Andean and James flamingos are underused species for education: eye-catching, coming from environment opposite to people's idea of flamingo habitat, and their breeding system allows collecting chicks which are doomed in the wild.
 
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Jurek7 said:
Hopefully some cooperation could be made with La Paz zoo to obtain more birds. Andean and James flamingos are underused species for education: eye-catching, coming from environment opposite to people's idea of flamingo habitat, and their breeding system allows collecting chicks which are doomed in the wild.
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I don´t think La Paz zoo will be willing to send their flamingos to Europe. They built a nice enclosure and they now serve as a place where injured / ill flamingos can be placed, a rescue station for the whole region. They also do important education on these species. I think such place is needed in Bolivia.

I am also unsure if it would be possible to obtain CITES export/import papers for birds who are not captive bred and that have no approved export quota. The best solution would be for La Paz zoo to collect more flamingo eggs, raise chicks, let them form a colony and start to breed them. Import of captive bred chicks should not pose any problem for an European zoo like Berlin, as long as the Bolivian zoo and government agree.
 
I know that Walsrode got a sizable number of injured Peruvian Pelicans because it supported some rescue center in South America. These later started to breed.

Breeding colonies of flamingos fail every few years and lots of chicks die. At least on wildlife films, sometimes whole flocks of young flamingos freeze or starve to death. In real life, it could be 1000s of dying flamingos. Theoretically, some zoo in Europe could make a cooperation with La Paz or another local place. They could support the rescue center, and get flamingos which don't fit in the rescue center.

By the way, watching wild animals, and especially colonies of waterbirds, it is very sad how many perfectly healthy creatures die needlessly. They just have no luck. There is a spell of cold weather or flood or drought, and tens or thousands of nests fail. They don't even get eaten by some predator, they simply die and rot. It made me look at zoos much more sympathetically.
 
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