![]() ![]() ![]() Additional reserves established by the local Yucatán government mean that almost all the peninsula’s wetlands are protected, says Koob.įlamingo numbers have been increasing since the establishment of the parks, say Koob. Ría Lagartos to the east is where the flamingos nest and breed, while on Yucatán’s western border, Ría Celestún is an important feeding site. Their diet comprises algae, shrimps and mollusks containing large amounts of carotenoids - the same pigments that give fruits and vegetables like carrots, pumpkins, and tomatoes their coloring - and which are responsible for the flamingo’s signature hot-pink appearance, says Koob.įlamingo conservation has been a high priority for Mexico since the 1970s and ’80s, when it established two federal wetland reserves on the Yucatán peninsula, later designated as UNESCO Biosphere Reserves. Flamingos need to consume 10% of their bodyweight daily, says Koob - so having long, undisturbed feeding times is important. Here, the flamingos encounter few predators or other birds that would compete for food. Gathering in groups known as a flamboyance, flamingos typically live in brackish water, but some inhabit alkaline “ soda lakes” filled with water so high in sodium carbonate it would irritate or burn the skin of most animals. Unlike humans, flamingos are well adapted for their extreme environment. “That is tough, with the sun and 40 degrees (heat),” says Koob. On some occasions, he took a boat into the lagoons before dawn so the birds would be accustomed to his presence by sunrise, and stayed until after nightfall. He often wore camouflage, army crawling across muddy ground to get close to the birds without scaring them. Koob says his “slow approach” to photography enabled him to gather intimate images of the flamingos. They could leave all the eggs, and abandon the colony,” says Koob. Nowadays, thanks largely to action by the government and the National Trust, the flamingo is making a comeback.“If you disturb one, they start screaming and flying away, and you can cause a panic. Cory, a curator of birds in the Boston Society of Natural History, wrote at the end of the19th century that great numbers of young birds were killed before they were able to fly, and many were carried away alive to be sold to passing vessels, on which they died from want of care. However, several factors, including action by man, led to a reduction in their number. The Roseate or West Indian flamingoes (Phoenicopterus ruber) were formerly also bred in Abaco, Andros, Rum Cay, the Exuma Cays, Long Island, Ragged Cays, Acklins, Mayaguana, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. The scarlet, long-legged flamingoes are found in three major nesting groups in the West Indian region, Great Inagua being one of them (the others are in Yucatan, Mexico, and Bonaire Island in the Netherlands Antilles.) The more than 50,000 birds inhabiting 287 square miles of Inagua wilderness are protected by wardens employed by the Society for the Protection of the Flamingo in The Bahamas through the Bahamas National Trust, a statutory body set up in 1959. The Flamingo - National Bird of The Bahamas Mof_content/internet/The Government/Government/Gov Home Left Nav Gov Home Left Nav Bills, Subsidiary Legislation, and Resolutions.Office of The Data Protection Commissioner.Bahamas Agriculture and Industrial Corporation (BAIC).Table of Precedence for The Commonwealth of The Bahamas.Overview and Structure of the Government.Bahamas National Geographic Information Systems. ![]()
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