None of the eggs were fertile,
but conservation officials have hatched a plan to encourage the flamingos to
breed again
By Brigit Katz
SMITHSONIAN.COM
AUGUST 13, 2018 3:17PM
AUGUST 13, 2018 3:17PM
A scorching summer heat wave has
been sending things a bit topsy turvy in the typically-temperate U.K. Water
supplies have been depleted, traces
of ancient structures are cropping up in parched fields and
demand for thirst-quenching beverages contributed to a beer
shortage. Emphasizing just how high temperatures have climbed, a
nature reserve in Gloucestershire, England announced last week that a hot spell
prompted its rare Andean flamingos to lay eggs for the first time in 15 years,
as Yonette Joseph of The New York Times reports.
With weather conditions mimicking
their warm natural habitat, six Andean flamingos at the Wildfowl & Wetlands
Trust (WWT) Slimbridge were recently triggered to lay a total of nine eggs. The
reserve said in a statement that the rare pink birds, which hail
from the Andean plateaus of Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina, are notoriously
“fickle breeders and can go years without nesting successfully.” They usually
lay just one egg, and when the climate isn’t favorable, they often do not breed
at all. The ones at the WWT haven’t laid any eggs since 2003, when the weather
was similarly hot, according to The Telegraph’s Sarah Knapton. The birds’ last
successful breeding period was in 1999.
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