The BIAZA Flamingo Focus Group
I thought I would just write a short piece on the meeting that I attended this week, alongside many other flamingo keepers and zoo professionals, at WWT Martin Mere, as part of the BIAZA (British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums) Bird Working Group. This group meets annually to discuss relevant issues that relate to the keeping of captive birds in zoological collections across the UK and Ireland, and it is an interesting and enjoyable gathering of like-minded people who wish to share their own ideas as well as learn more about current developments in the field. Half of one of the days that the working group ran was devoted to captive flamingo husbandry, under the auspices of the BIAZA Flamingo Focus Group.
A range of interesting presentations were shared on several topics but the over-riding theme of the event was enclosure use and how to encourage breeding. There seemed to be a lot of similar issues facing captive flocks of flamingos in the UK. As many flocks are "reproductively static", and not breeding at a rate that we in the zoo world would all like, the sharing of ideas is a positive and useful experience that benefits the birds in the long term. Excellent presentations from Drusillas Zoo (in Sussex) showed the benefits of using audio playbacks of flamingo calls to stimulate breeding behaviours, which ultimately resulted in a new arrival! Belfast Zoo (Northern Ireland) who explained how they are developing a new area for flamingos in their collection, and how they are changing to keep a different species. And Blackpool Zoo (Lancashire) who successfully reared numerous chicks from only a small flock of Caribbean flamingos thanks to the dedication and ingenuity of the keepers.
Julian, from Centre Developments at WWT Slimbridge provided a very comprehensive over-view of the new "Flamingo Lagoon" exhibit as a means of showing to other collections what novel and interesting features can be incorporated into an enclosure for these birds to further engage the public and increase the "wow" factor that captive flamingos have. Julian did an excellent job of explaining the new viewing area in the exhibit that allows visitors to Slimbridge to get well and truly up-close to the birds, without disturbing them, and to see through the flamingos legs to get a different perspective on the birds.
WWT Martin Mere was an excellent setting for this meeting; with its flocks of greater and Chilean flamingos there was plenty of "flamingo focus" (a bad joke I know) to keep the Focus Group entertained. Martin Mere, and all centres that house flamingos, will also benefit from the shared knowledge that comes from such gatherings as WWT continues to mould and shape its own flamingo husbandry regimes.
