WWT's flamingo conservation programme aims to enhance the conservation status of flamingos worldwide.
By maintaining breeding populations of flamingos at WWT centres and supplying reputable collections with flamingos, WWT can reduce the demand for wild-caught birds. All funds received are used for the conservation of flamingos in the wild.
Background
Despite there being almost five million flamingos in the world today, the total number of major flamingo breeding sites, worldwide, is thought probably to number fewer than 30. Although flamingos might be individually numerous, colonially and reproductively they are threatened in a world where people are altering their landscapes, causing the birds’ feeding and breeding sites to vanish. Not surprisingly, all six species are either threatened or listed as priority species for conservation under international conventions.
There is a real need for the production of conservation action plans for the six different species of flamingos so all the important flamingo sites of the world can be found and protected.
Providing nest-sites
WWT has long advocated building artificial nest mounds for captive flamingos. Each year WWT aviculturalists sculpture natural looking ‘cement-like’ cones from the clay and mud substrate of the birds' nest islands which triggers egg laying activity in birds at Slimbridge and Washington. Based on the ‘Slimbridge experience’ workers in the Camargue in southern France provided 500 nest mounds for wild Greater Flamingos in Fangassier Lagoon with the result that birds resumed nesting after a period of several years without breeding.
Artificial incubation
WWT has ensured that flamingo eggs can be successfully incubated, to the point of hatching, in artificial incubators. This ensures that eggs are not accidentally knocked off from nests by clumsy parents climbing on and off nest mounds. WWT aviculturalists replace all freshly laid eggs with wooden dummy eggs fitted with anchors. When the real egg, which is placed in an incubator, begins to hatch on day 26, it is returned to its parents or foster-parents for hatching.