Flamingos

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Lisbeth
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Flamingos

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Many of Kimberley's rescued flamingos in the clear again after rehab

2019-04-24 07:52
Jenni Evans


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WATCH Hundreds of flamingo chicks admitted to SANCCOB for life-saving rehabilitation
Over 2 000 abandoned and distressed flamingo chicks were jetted all over South Africa this week as part of a series of mercy flights from Kimberley after their habitat came under threat due to water problems.


Many of the Lesser Flamingo chicks that survived mercy flights to rehabilitation centres around the country from Kimberley, are in the clear again and going back home.

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After weeks of being hand-reared, the rescued flamingos are starting to spread their wings again (Supplied by SANCCOB)

"It was quite intense," said Nicky Stander, rehabilitation manager at the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) in Cape Town.

Earlier this year, a country-wide network of volunteers and sponsors came to the rescue of the abandoned chicks.

Their mothers had left them in their nests when Kimberley's Kamfer dam dried up. The sight of thousands of the flamingos on the dam has been a spectacle long enjoyed by visitors and residents in Kimberley.

However, near-tragedy struck in January when the dam dried up, and the abandoned flamingo chicks were unable to care for themselves.

Sadly, not all survived the mercy flights around the country, and more succumbed during rehabilitation.

However, those who made it through the round-the-clock feeds and weigh-ins, are being flown back to Kimberley in batches for a short period of quarantine and monitoring, and then they will be free again.

Stander said that of the around 500 chicks flown to them, 42 flew home from SANCCOB in Table View last week and another 49 will be ready to go home in the first week of May.

"All of the facilities around South Africa that were holding chicks agreed on the criteria to transfer them back," said Stander.

The facilities included uShaka Sea World aquarium in Durban, the National Zoo in Pretoria, the World of Birds in Hout Bay, and Onderstepoort Veterinary facility outside Pretoria. Even a well-known private investigator assisted, as well as private pilots, and hundreds of volunteers and donors.

There were fund-raising activities for the food and other supplies the chicks needed to get through the crucial first weeks of life.

Stander said the volunteers at SANCCOB were sad to say goodbye to the chicks that survived.

"They have become quite attached to these pink fluffs."

Ann Kunz of the SA Association for Marine Biological Research, which runs uShaka Sea World, said 78 out of 250 have been sent back to Kimberley after "receiving their flying colours".

Kunz said everybody was rooting for their little charges to get flight ready again.

Kimberley's SPCA posted on Facebook: "We are waiting in anticipation for the rest of the returning chicks."


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Re: Lesser Flamingo

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\O \O


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Re: Lesser Flamingo

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So, we know what you're thinking... and no, one #flamingo is not bludgeoning the head of another while its offspring feeds on the blood. These flamingos are trying to feed the same chick with red crop milk. Parent flamingos produce crop milk in their digestive tracts and regurgitate it to feed their young.


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Re: Lesser Flamingo

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:shock:


Please check Needs Attention pre-booking: https://africawild-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=322&t=596
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Re: Lesser Flamingo

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:shock: That's new to me!


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Re: Lesser Flamingo

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Flamingos are a familiar feature of waterbodies in central South Africa. Two species occur within the region - the Lesser Flamingo and the Greater Flamingo. Of the six species of flamingo found globally, the Lesser Flamingo is the most numerous. When encountered at places like Kamfers Dam near Kimberly they appear to be flourishing, yet despite their apparent abundance the species is listed both globally and regionally as ‘Near-threatened’. Ever wondered whether you are always seeing the same individuals, or where they go when they leave a certain waterbody? At what time of day do they fly and what are the obstacles they encounter along the way? The EWT’s Wildlife and Energy Programme and Eskom started a GPS-tracking study in 2016 to answer some of these questions, with the aim of knowing how and where to place warning markers to prevent flamingo collisions with power lines. Four years’ worth of data have revealed some new and surprising information about Lesser Flamingo movements within southern Africa. Join Matt Pretorius, Senior Field Officer for the EWT’s Wildlife and Energy Programme, as he unveils the unique and often precarious world of the Lesser Flamingo.


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Re: Flamingos

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flamingo.jpg
flamingo.jpg (81.88 KiB) Viewed 452 times

The Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus ruber (above, left) and Lesser Flamingo P. minor (above, right) appear to have very similar beaks. Both are ‘keeled’ and contain lamellae for filtering food from the water (much in the manner of a baleen whale).
The Greater Flamingo has a shallowkeeled beak, in which the two mandibles are of equal width, but even when the beak is closed, the two mandibles do not meet fully. In this species, the upper mandible is a shallow oval in cross-section.
The Lesser Flamingo, by contrast, has a deep-keeled beak in which the upper mandible is triangular in crosssection and narrower than the lower mandible. When the beak is closed, the upper mandible slots neatly into the lower mandible.
The two species also have different lamellae. Those of the Greater Flamingo are designed solely for preventing prey escaping once in the mouth. Those of the Lesser Flamingo serve two purposes: some lamellae prevent food escaping, while others prevent food particles that are too large from entering the mouth.
The Greater Flamingo can only control the size of food particles entering its mouth by altering the extent to which the beak is opened.
Not only do the beaks differ in their mechanical properties, but Greater Flamingos typically feed with their heads deeply submerged, while Lesser
Flamingos strain food from close to the water surface. The result is completely different diets – Greater Flamingos eat mostly crustaceans, whereas Lessers are specialists on cyanobacteria (previously known as blue-green algae).


http://www.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za/sites/ ... 954-61.pdf


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Re: Flamingos

Post by Lisbeth »

Still learning :yes: \O


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Re: Flamingos

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They are lovely! :-0


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