They do it with mirrors: Zoo staff discover way to get flamingos in the mood for love

Published on Thursday 23 July 2009 11:10

ZOO staff have discovered the trick behind getting flamingos in the mood – it's all done with mirrors.

The keepers recently installed mirrors into the Chilean flamingo enclosure at Edinburgh Zoo as part of a bid to create the perfect love nest for the birds.

The result has been their best ever breeding season, with four fluffy flamingo chicks already born and another five eggs due to hatch over the coming weeks.

It is the first successful breeding season for the flamingos since four chicks were born in 2006 and the largest number of flamingo chicks ever hatched at the zoo.

The mirrors were aimed not at spicing up the flamingos' love life but at tricking them into believing they were part of a larger group – in the wild they are usually surrounded by hundreds of others – and therefore relaxing them.

Staff at the zoo have also put in a lot of effort to create an ideal breeding environment for the threatened species.

Gavin Harrison, senior keeper for birds said: "We have been working on the flamingos' nest site since April. We moved the entire nest site over to an area that the birds seemed to favour.

"We then started to build nests for them using mud and clay soil, this triggered the nesting instinct in the birds and they started to take over and build their own.

"In order to maintain the nests, the keepers had to manually turn the soil over each day and keep it hydrated, which was a lot of work for the staff involved.

"Thankfully our efforts have paid off as we expect the flamingos to produce a record-breaking number of chicks."

The first Chilean flamingo chick hatched in 1979 but the next year of breeding success wasn't until 1997 when three chicks hatched.

The zoo has 32 adult Chilean flamingos – 22 males and 10 females – having recently brought in 10 birds to boost the flocks numbers. The chicks began to hatch on 20 June and the remaining eggs are expected to hatch in the next few weeks.

Pale grey and fluffy, flamingos will not turn pink until they are one year old. They are pink due to the carotenoid pigments in the food they eat, particularly crustaceans such as prawns, and in zoos, they often lose their pink colouring as their diet is different.

There are five different species of Chilean flamingo and numerous sub-species that range from Peru and Chile to Argentina. They live in shallow salt water lakes and lagoons and due to their secluded territory, they have very few natural predators.

The species is threatened, however, by environmental changes and habitat loss. It is thought most of the chicks will remain at the zoo.

BABY BOOM AT CAPITAL ATTRACTION

EDINBURGH Zoo has enjoyed a bumper year for births so far.

The most recent high-profile arrival was Leishan, the pygmy hippo born in May, the first pygmy hippo born there in four years.

In April, the zoo also welcomed three baby gelada baboons – Chandu, Chibale and Chiku – which were the first to be born in Edinburgh, with the species only being brought to the zoo two years ago.

In addition, they have seen 43 gentoo penguin chicks and two rockhopper penguin chicks hatched this year. Two cochin Chinese red jungle fowl chicks, a potoroo, two hamerkop chicks, a white-faced saki monkey, a North American tree porcupine, two reindeer foals, a white-lipped deer, a bush baby, a capuchin monkey, a goeldi's monkey and three maned wolf pups have also ensured that staff at the Capital attraction are kept busy.