New year, new house.
Happy 2013 folks. I thought I would start of the posts of 2013 with news of an exciting new development within the grounds at Slimbridge. The flock of 22 Andean flamingos have started off the new year in style by being moved to a new exhibit and are reunited with Mr James the single James' flamingo with which they have shared most of their time at Slimbridge with. This leaves the South American Pen as the sole preserve of the Chilean flamingos. The Andean flamingos feature quite a lot in my posts as I guess it's because I am a little biased towards them; well actually I think they are cool! Such good looking birds and a real WWT special to have a flock of them in captivity. So it is nice to be able to write an article all about their husbandry. In which case, how do you move one of the most precious groups of birds at Slimbridge, and the only large flock of this species in captivity anywhere in the world? Carefully is the answer to that!
WWT has perfected, over the years, the art of corralling flocks of flamingos to cause minimal stress to the birds during capture. The flamingos are herded into a straw-lined pen and handled, crated and moved in groups so that no birds are left by themselves, and no birds is chased around the enclosure trying to be caught individually. It is an excellent system and keeps the birds very, very calm.
Each flamingo is placed into a large crate and covered over with sacking to keep the inside dark and the flamingos quiet and safe. The birds are loaded onto trailers and driven to their new home as quickly as possible. That is the key when moving flamingos; quickly, quietly and with as little fuss as possible. No crowds, fuss or on-lookers. I have mentioned in earlier posts
Andean flamingos are relatively hassle-free birds but they are not big fans of being handled. So whilst they are generally calm about life and unflustered, the avics know to take extra precautions when handling them directly, or when moving them around. It is good to see the flock in the new exhibit looking settled and relaxed, and for my research it is very exciting to be able to monitor whether this change of scenery affects the relationships that exist between the birds. The Andean flamingos are a very strongly bonded group; a bit of a shake-up could reignite breeding behaviour and hopefully set this flock on the path to regular breeding once again... And I am sure Mr James is pleased to have his old companions back again!
All photo credits Phoebe Young.
