Flight of the Flamingo

When I was younger, I loved to visit my grandparents in California, not because of the ocean or Disneyland but because they would always take me to the San Jose Zoo. Even though there are plenty of zoos where I live, but none of them have flamingos outside. They covered their area with various shades of pink and white and seemed like the most content birds around. Unfortunately, the numbers of flamingos might soon be rapidly depleting in the world, specifically Kenya.

Recently Charles Hanley reported on MSNBC news about the loss of over 970,000 flamingos in Lake Nakuru National Park in Kenya. The reason for this fall of population is due to the shrinking of the lake. The reason for the shrinking lake has left researchers puzzled, but many have felt it’s connected to the environmental and industrial changes nearby. According to Hanley, there have been many changes around the lake including deforestation, global warming and industrial run-off into the lake causing it to dry up and shrink in size. Even though, these changes would affect many lake ecosystems, Lake Nakuru is especially fragile being shallow with an average depth of 8 meters. These changes have indirectly affected the flamingos of Lake Nakuru who major survival sources are connected to the lake. With the shrinking of the lake, the flamingo’s major food supply of blue-green algae has diminished. The pollution has also affected the flamingos directly by causing health concerns for them, which was revealed to Charles Hanley by Lake Nakuru National Park deputy Paul Opiyo.

But to the people of Nakuru, the flamingos do more than just provide beauty: they are a major component in the area’s economy. The flamingos are the most famous inhabitants of Lake Nakuru, because of this they are main attractions for tourists. The flamingos are also major components of the Lake Nakuru food web. With their population depletion, the other organisms will be affected, further discouraging tourists to visits.

Something needs to be done to save Lake Nakuru. The economy of Nakuru and the lives of thousands of flamingos depend on it. If the flamingos continue to disappear, some of the only flamingos seen by future generations would be the plastic ones in people yards.

 

Sources:

“Flamingo Paradise Shrinks along lake” by Charles Hanley http://www.msnbc.com/id/15731235

Kenya Wildlife Service: Nakuru National Park http://www.kws.org/nakuru.html

Photo credit:

Wikpedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Lake_Nakuru_flamingos.jpg