Farwell to Flamingos
The end of an era for one of the oldest and rarest flamingos in a British zoo.
For many people, a visit to the zoo to see many of the worlds glories of fauna means that if they have seen one example of lion, giraffe, rhino, the Noah’s ark list goes on and thankfully on, that they have therefore seen them all within an afternoons outing.
This however is not the case as any good zoo or nature documentary will tell you. In the case of the much merchandised flamingos, there are in fact six species of these plumed ballerina like creations that inhabit earth. They create confetti. Blossom like appearances as they migrate in their nomadic rather than migratory fashions between their salt, soda or marshy habitats as water levels and their brine shrimp banquets that ensure their pink plumes, dictate.
I’ve always loved flamingos but I’ve never seen them in the wild, I don’t go on holiday much, let alone get on a plane to either Africa or South America! No. This love affair started in 2000 as a child watching the BBC natural history series ‘Andes to Amazon’ beautifully filmed and narrated by the brilliant tone of Fergal Keane, the telly screen took my young eyes and heart to the high Andean mountains of Peru, Patagonia and Bolvia where the highest salt lakes on earth can be found, one of the harshest habitats with souring day time temperatures and freezing ones at night that often leave the flamingos trapped in ice by dawn.
Here, descending on this chain of lakes as they become habitable with enough shallow, salty, brine rich water, are 3 Species of flamingo. The 3 rarest in the world, the Chilean, the Andean and the James. Since the filming of Andes to Amazon, their seemingly isolated habitat is increasingly the place for vast mining. There is an abundance of lithium, with it even being coined the ‘Lithium Triangle’ of late, containing more than half of the world’s supply and extract it the volume of water required is colossal, causing some lakes to turn forever into hostile, dry desert lake beds.
Flamingos are fickle and nervous birds that in fact are more closely related to grebes than geese or storks as was thought for a long time. The biggest clue to this family link is the fact that flamingos passionately dance just like grebes do, in order to find partners and cement bonds between each other. These dancing displays can be seen both in Andes to Amazon and more recently in Planet Earth II - bbc iplayer on the mountains episode.
Naturally being a flamingo fan since childhood, I’ve frequented a lot of zoos that keep them, some gloriously such as Chester and Longleat who have invested in great netted aviaries to frequent large flocks of flamingos and in doing so, they do not need to subject their birds to being wing clipped. This arguably sees captive flamingos flourish as this not only allows them to fly a little but the male flamingos can then balance better on the backs of their females during mating! Dozens of fluffy grey flamingo chicks result from the fertile eggs that are laid at these collections, especially if the UK has a hot summer. In my early twenties, I would request meet ups at London’s Kensington roof gardens with rich geezers so I could watch the flamingos that once lived there over cocktails.
The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust’s HQ that is Slimbridge was traditionally the place that had the most success in breeding flamingos in captivity, sending fledgling flocks and also fertile eggs to other collections worldwide of 3 species, the Greater, Caribbean and Chilean.
The remaining 3 species however in particular, the James and Andean were never successfully tempted to lay or hatch enough eggs for their numbers to build up into sustainable breeding groups. This was especially so in the case of the James flamingos. These are arguably the most beautiful and exotic of all the flamingos, with vibrant pink, blood orange plumes arching and shaking against a muller blushed yogurt white body of feathers and a toucan like bill of plaster yellow and a thrilling call. It is not honk like but far more mystical, hard to describe. If you pucka up your lips and go puffa-puffa-puffa then that is it!
Sir Peter Scott, founder of the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust, was keen to have all 6 flamingos at Slimbridge, naturally he was both an avianist and a conservationist, one of the finest on both counts.
If anyone was going to have a bash at breeding South American flamingos, it was going to be him, most notably his efforts saved the almost extinct Hawaiian Nene goose.
The first James flamingos arrived in 1965, with three birds being imported probably as quite traumatised adult birds, possibly others went to other zoos, London zoo has records of some individuals who may as well of been taxidermy, languishing as sorry singletons amongst other more gregarious flamingo species. If such capture from the wild was to happen now, then the hand rearing of orphaned chicks would be the best thing. Many chicks hatch too late to fledge and as flamingo society is a collective, late starters are doomed to abandonment or predation, their adoption would make no difference to wild numbers.
Sense now would also know that such a little number of inmates would have always been doomed to failure as flamingos need to be in large flocks to even consider flirting. There has also been research that has proven flamingos are very fickle in who they chose to frequent with in a friendly manner within their flocks. So one cannot just chuck a few flamingos together and expect passion to ignite, they may simply not like each other! This is probably why, in the wild and indeed within large captive flocks, flamingos spend a great deal of time dancing to find preferable partners.
WWT received a few more birds over the '60s and '70s but no chicks were hatched despite some nest building and the laying of eggs, arguably a triumph in itself and a sign that with some adjustments successful breeding could have occurred. As the surrounding flocks of other flamingo species blossomed in numbers at the Trust, the James flamingos fell into the shadow of the larger Andean flamingo flock whom they lived with until eventually, just one James flamingo remained. He would be known fondly to those who knew him as Mr James. His persona was known as being rather grumpy and he didn't really get on with his last James' flamingo companion who died in 2010.
He lived to a very ripe age that was believed to be 65 years old, by far out living the wild lifespan of flamingos which is usually between 20 and 30 years. The only other James flamingos in captivity, are a small flock to be seen in an aviary that resembles a castle like jelly mould shape within the Berlin Zoological Gardens. They are not given as much room as those at Slimbridge are by far, indeed from judging photos their existence here, looks like the enclosure of a very old styled zoo with a small pool and guano staled earth.
None the less, this little flock has in the past nested successfully, several times in fact, although little celebration or mention of them has happened. This is odd when compared with the PR carpet that zoo births of mammals are given. In the pecking order of zoological priorities, birds have until recently often been treated as beautiful ornamentals to frequent the mixed zoo collections, this has changed greatly for the better in the past decade but it has come too late for some. The berlin flock have been photographed by the acclaimed wildlife photographer, Joel Sartore. Joe has been working with the National Geographic to create the archive called the photo ark which documents the species held in zoological collections. In his photos, 10 James flamingos of the Berlin zoo are to be counted.
The same risk of this small flock all becoming flamingo pensioners, as happened at Slimbridge is high, with just the odd chick raised to adulthood every few years for it to then have no bird of an unrelated or similar youthful age for it to then pair up with. This all reads as quite an almost pointless tale, sad but its not really.
I am glad to have seen Mr James at Slimbridge a few years ago now looking very content and spirited at Slimbridge.
It could, arguably be a failure that he wasn’t somehow taken perhaps to Berlin but maybe the trip would have stressed him to the point of a heart attack in transit and maybe the other James flamingos would not of liked him there anyway, we will never know. What we do know is during his life at Slimbridge, this birds residence has allowed a great deal of research to be undertaken about his unique species that can be used to support his wild kin back in South America.
Do I wish some orphaned James flamingo chicks, shall we say 30 of them, could arrive perhaps into a purpose built, aviary of steam geezer, salt pan impression of luxury and with all that we know now about these birds now be put into place to ensure they are happy, that they do dance, mate and nest successfully just so we have a Noah’s ark bank of them? Well the Sir Peter Scott avianist and human greed in me says yes and if I was a millionaire, I would probably fund such a project.
Without any breeding populations of them in captivity, it is possible that both the James and Andean flamingos will fade into thinner and thinner pink hazes in their natural habitats if lithium mining, climate change, disturbance from tourism, pollution and also avian flu which has recently caused some mass die off events combine together as threats in years to come.
Captivity will always be controversial but I remember seeing my first flamingos in person as that little boy who longed to see them in reality after watching Andes to Amazon at a zoo and falling deeply in love and its this love, if formed early on for a species of animal that then makes us carry them forever as adults. If I felt flamingos could not be content in zoological collections, if they lived short lives and faded into white, pale sad creatures then I would not argue for them to be within captivity.
It strikes a cord in me also to see that the main opposition of even very well funded, researched and respected zoological attractions are, almost all, of people who have got the privilege to see exotic fauna in the wild, something that few can afford or have the luxury of doing. It is a subject that ignites the strongest of passions in people for and against that this piece of writing has not the scope to go into nor does its writer have the scope to fit into words here, they’ll be more flamingo tales if you liked this one but I just wanted to do this as a tribute to Mr James, he will be dearly missed and did much to highlight his species whilst living at Slimbridge.
Gary Haseley-Nejrup, Centre Manager at WWT Slimbridge said:
Mr. James was more than just a resident at Slimbridge; he was an ambassador for the beauty and diversity of the natural world. His enduring spirit will continue to inspire our ongoing flamingo husbandry, reminding us of the importance of safeguarding our wetland wildlife for generations to come.
Delightful - although sad, as well. Loved the dancing. Apparently, male seahorses also dance for their partners - and continue, every morning, after they're coupled up as a renewal of their bond...
Oh I saw my first flamingo in the wild in Namibia in December - they are beautiful 🦩🦩🦩🦩🦩🦩🦩