It was a rare sight to view tens of thousands of flamingoes that outnumbered the few white pelicans at lake Nakura like a shaded pink carpet with white spots. Lake Bogoria of Nakura town in Kenya is one of the most favoured tourist destinations for all, mainly the naturalists and bird watchers. When we reached this place the sensational sight of thousands of flamingoes with the few pelicans on the other side of the lake caught us unaware — with its breathtaking view of the big sky above, the magnificent flamingoes all around us, and our open safari van. There was no other soul around! It was like a place out of the world!! We felt as if all flamingoes belonged to us and as if they were part of our family and we were overwhelmed with emotion to protect these wonderful lovely creatures!!

Flamingoes are pink feathery birds with a purplish hue at the centre of the undersurface of the feathers. It looks magnificent when it spreads its wings with vibrant colours. Rest of the body varies from light to deep pink in colour. These lovely birds walk around the lake with its dainty long legs and at times spreads it wings and fly high up in the sky in groups making nice patterns and majestically flapping its pink feathery wings and long neck stretched out with beak pouting downwards.

Lesser flamingoes dominate Kenya’s flamingo population. They feed on blue green algae and needs saline water for their survival. They are most abundant in lake Bogoria of Nakura. In recent years, there number had been on a decline! Lesser flamingos are surprising scientists by flocking to one of Kenya’s smallest lakes — Lake Oloidien which recently turned saline making it good feeding habitat for the near threatened birds. The water of the lake is too saline for human or cattle.

Lake Oloidien is a volcanic crater lake formed at the southwest corner of lake Naivasha. It has steadily been going saline since its water levels fell and it became a separate lake in 1979. In July 2006, it passed the magic salinity mark and began to produce bacteria called spirulina, the main food for lesser flamingoes. There were sudden deaths of thousands of lesser flamingos at lake Nakura and lake Elementeita in March this year, the reason for which is still not clear to the scientists.

Lake Oloidien has not been without its mortalities as well and few hundred lesser flamingoes have already died here. Kenya’s lesser flamingos also suffered three mysterious ‘die-offs’ in the 1990s with a cumulative loss of at least 250,000 birds. The number has increased since March in lake Nakura — to almost quarter of a million.

The large number of flamingoes — sometimes occurs in flocks, even a million in one lake, make a spectacular sight equivalent to the wildebeast on the Serengeti plain of Tanzania. Despite these numbers and density, lesser flamingoes are considered to be a near threatened species because their numbers are only about half of those formerly recorded. Natural changes in the environment and not man-made pollution is probably the cause of mass deaths of flamingos in Kenya, scientists say.

It is feared that natural fluctuations rather than anthropogenic changes like pollution caused flamingo mortality either directly through starvation or indirectly by increasing susceptibility to infectious diseases. In 1990, tens of thousands of birds died threatening crucial income from tourism, though the exact cause of fatalities still remained an enigma.

Kenya’s flamingoes belong to the lesser species, 80 per cent of which live in Africa. Lesser flamingo population in the Kenyan Rift saline lakes respond to changes in phytoplanklan species, its composition and densities, behavioural needs, breeding cycles of the birds and environmental condition. The numbers of flamingos are high when the density of blue green algae is high, stimulating flamingo courtship and display. The numbers decline, resulting in low phytoplankton densities and a domination by toxic phytoplankton species.

Flamingoes are one of the more gregarious of birds. They are wading birds to be more precise, found in both eastern and western hemispheres. There are four varieties of flamingo in America while two exist elsewhere. Flamingoes filter their food by having their beaks oddly shaped — they appear to be upside down. They are adapted to separate mud and silt from the food they eat.

Filtering of food items is assisted by hairy structures called lamellae which line their mandibles and the large tongue. Interestingly, the flamingoes pink colourings are not there when they are born — in fact, they hatch grey feathers. The colouration that they later develop is created by beta carotene in their diets — which is either brine shrimp or blue green algae.

Flamingoes produce ‘milk’ like pigeon milk due to the action of a hormone called prolactin. It contains more fat and less protein than actual milk does and is made in glands that line the entire digestive tract of the flamingo. Both parents nurse the little flamingoes and little one feed on this milk for about two months. The milk also contains red and white blood cells that help to nourish the chicks until they are old enough to feed themselves.

Flamingoes often stand on one leg — probably — in order to conserve body heat and energy, although the reason is not clear. Flamingoes stamp their webbed feet in the need to stir up food from the bottom prior to eating it. They make a very distinctive sound when feeding as well which is like a soft honking in nature.

It is believed that more vibrant the colours of flamingoes are more desirable they are as a mate. Captive flamingos are usually paler as they are not fed with enough of beta carotene they should get. There are varieties of flamingo, the greater, lesser (Africa, India), Caribbean, Chilean, Andean and James. Many bird watchers and naturalists are observing the occasional changing habits of the lesser flamingoes in Kenya. Much scientific research has also been going on in partnership with Earthwatch, the University of Nairobi, National Museum of Kenya and Kenya Wildlife Services. The team also includes bacterial toxin expert and veterinarian. They are all working together to protect these magnificent birds from infectious disease and environmental changes.

Seema Kashyap