Flamingos
| Flamingos | ||||||||||||
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James Flamingos ( Phoenicoparrus jamesi ), Bolivia |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the order | ||||||||||||
| Phoenicopteriformes | ||||||||||||
| Fürbringer , 1888 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the family | ||||||||||||
| Phoenicopteridae | ||||||||||||
| Bonaparte , 1831 |
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The flamingos (Phoenicopteridae) are the only family within the order of the Phoenicopteriformes . They occur in South, Central and North America as well as Europe, Africa and Southwest Asia. The only representative of the order, whose natural range extends to Europe, is the greater flamingo . It occurs on the Atlantic coast of Spain and Portugal as well as along the coastal area of the Mediterranean and on some Mediterranean islands.
Different views in science lead to a classification of the flamingos into five or six species . Their common features are the more or less intense pink plumage as well as the highly specialized beak and the tongue apparatus.
features
All flamingo species are very similar to one another. They have long, thin legs, a long neck, and pink plumage . Standing upright, flamingos are 90 to 155 cm high. The sexual dimorphism is low, the sexes are colored alike, but males are on average slightly larger than females. Their necks and legs are longer than any other bird in relation to their height. Measured by the length of the neck, the number of cervical vertebrae at 17 is not above average; with swans z. B. there are 25. The head is very small in relation to the body size, as are the feet; in the pink, chile and lesser flamingo the first toe points backwards and the remaining three forwards ( anisodactyl ), the Andean and James flamingos lack the first toe (tridactyl). The forward facing toes are webbed together.
The pink color of the plumage is due to the ingestion of carotenoids with food. These are mainly found in planktonic algae . The flamingo organism can convert these carotenoids with the help of enzymes in the liver ; this creates several pigments , especially canthaxanthin , which is stored in the skin and feathers of adult flamingos. Young birds have gray plumage with little or no pink pigments. The unnatural diet of zoo flamingos also means that they tend to have white plumage.
Another characteristic of the flamingos is the downwardly bent cattle beak with which they - upside down - filter plankton out of the water or mud . The beak edges are covered with fine lamellae, together with the tongue they form a filter apparatus that fulfills a similar function as the whales of the baleen whales .
Flamingos are good swimmers, but don't use this skill often. Their long legs also allow them to wade at greater depths. In flight they keep the neck straight, the wings are flapped quickly and regularly; Glide phases are rare. They reach flight speeds of 50 to 60 km / h. Flamingos flying in groups usually form energy-saving V-formations . There are usually some running steps done both before takeoff and after landing.
While flamingos require muscle strength to stand on two legs, they can balance on one leg with minimal effort. When one leg is lifted, the body's center of gravity shifts over the other leg. An additional "locking mechanism" provides the necessary stability so that balancing on one leg is possible even while sleeping. In theory, this mechanism works even when the bird is dead.
distribution and habitat
Although flamingos are often mistaken for birds in warm tropical regions, they can also be found in temperate and cold zones, especially in the southern hemisphere. Flamingos are most common in Africa as well as in South and Central America , in Asia the occurrence ranges from Anatolia via Iran to the west of India . Larger occurrences in Europe are found in Spain (e.g. Coto de Doñana ), southern France ( Camargue ), Sardinia and Greece .
Flamingos have also been observed in northern France, the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany since the 1980s. The Chile and Cuba flamingos that have been sighted are clearly captive refugees . The origin of the greater flamingos that also reside in this region is unclear. Since wild greater flamingos are rarely observed more than 500 kilometers north of the Mediterranean coast, it seems certain that they were originally also captive refugees. In the Zwillbrocker Venn , a wetland on the German-Dutch border, there is a small breeding colony with pink and chile flamingos, which is the northernmost flamingo colony in the world. It counted twelve breeding pairs in 2012.
The ideal habitat for flamingos are alkaline or salty lakes. Some of these waters have high levels of chlorides , sodium carbonates , sulphates or fluorides . Hardly any other vertebrate can exist under such conditions; the flamingos still drink the water and feed on the few organisms that can tolerate this environment. Not all lakes that house flamingos are this extreme. Especially for the large species, there is a connection between the lack of fish and the presence of flamingos. Fish are food competitors for flamingos; where fish are numerous, flamingos are absent. This interaction plays less of a role in the smaller flamingo species, as they mainly live on diatoms and cyanobacteria. Flamingos are also rarely found in bays, such as on the coasts of Tunisia and Mauritania .
The heights at which flamingos can occur are also extreme. In the Andes, flamingos still breed at altitudes of 3500 to 4700 m. They spend the winter on the Altiplano , where temperatures can drop to −30 ° C at night .
Way of life
Activity pattern
Flamingos are active during the day and at night, and many species feed both during the day and at night. In the Camargue , breeding birds are active during the day and at night, while non-breeding birds are almost only on the move at night and sleep during the day. In Africa, however, greater flamingos are mostly active during the day, while the Lesser Flamingos are mostly active at night.
All flamingos are very sociable, the colonies often consist of thousands or tens of thousands of individuals. Some of the Lesser Flamingo colonies are largest in East Africa, and can contain up to a million individuals.
Food and diet
Flamingos can forage for food both day and night. Their daily rhythm varies depending on the distribution area and the season. Since, as relatively large birds, they live to a large extent from small or even very small organisms, the birds are often forced not only to look for food during the daytime hours. Disturbances in the foraging areas can also have an impact on the daily rhythm. In Spain and southern France, for example, greater flamingos go to rice fields in the evening because they can then eat there undisturbed.
Food spectrum
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Flamingos specialize in feeding plankton organisms that they filter out of the water with their chimney bills. In addition, they also take on larger prey, which they usually find by sight. These include fish, nereids and hermit crabs . Occasionally they feel clams in the mud. They also eat the seeds of aquatic plants, including rice. They also consume mud to get at its organic ingredients.
Overall, flamingos have a very broad food spectrum, as the species composition and the density of suitable prey can differ from wetland to wetland. In the temperate climate zone, their prey can also be subject to strong seasonal fluctuations. The prey animals mainly include small crustaceans , mosquito larvae , molluscs and annelids . Within this spectrum there are regionally different preferences. In Europe outweigh anostraca the genus Artemia ; In the Caribbean, besides marsh fly larvae, it is mainly small snails that are devoured ; In the lakes of East Africa, mosquito larvae and copepods play the largest role. Dependence on only one species is limited to hypersaline waters. In the Camargue, flamingos feed on fifteen different species of invertebrates.
A study determined the daily food requirements of Cuban flamingos in Venezuela. They consume 270 grams of food a day, which corresponds to 50,000 insect larvae. A group of 1,500 flamingos therefore consumes the equivalent of 75 million larvae every day. A Lesser Flamingo in Nakuru Lake consumes 60 grams of cyanobacteria every day. Since colonies of one million Lesser Flamingos regularly gather there, this means a daily yield of 60 tons of cyanobacteria.
Filtering food particles
Plankton is filtered out of the water with the lamellae of the cuspidor, the function of which is comparable to the whales of the baleen whales . In turn, fine hairs sit on the slats. They also feed on small, red crustaceans. The uptake of dye when these crabs are consumed is also responsible for the pink coloration of some species of flamingo. To pick up plankton, the beak is swung sideways through the water and only held half open. The tongue moves back and forth constantly to carry water in and out of the beak. Water with food particles gets into the interior of the beak. The smaller species have outer lamellas that prevent too large components from passing through. The inner lamellas, on the other hand, are horizontal and do not yet have any function at the moment of flow. Only when the water is pressed out do the inner lamellae straighten up and prevent the food components from reaching the outside. The palate and tongue are covered with small, backward-pointing spines that transport the particles towards the digestive tract.
The whole process of retracting and extending the tongue happens extremely quickly; the large species can pump water in and out of their beak four to five times per second, while the Lesser Flamingo can do this even twenty times per second. The types differ considerably in the details of this filter function. The large flamingos (pink and chile flamingos) have an oval upper beak that does not fit exactly on the lower beak, but leaves an approximately 6 mm gap for the tongue. The lamellae are each about 0.5 mm apart; There are no outer lamellas like the smaller flamingos. The food particles that are strained out of the water are between 0.5 and 6 mm in size.
The small flamingos (dwarf, Andean and James flamingo) have a triangular upper bill that fits seamlessly on the lower bill. They have outer lamellae that prevent food particles that are too large from entering the beak. These gaps are 1 × 0.4 mm in size in the Lesser Flamingo. The distances between the inner slats are a maximum of 0.05 mm. The food particles therefore have a size between 0.05 and 0.4 mm. In this size only cyanobacteria and diatoms are used as food.
The different adaptations mean that pink and lesser flamingos can filter for food next to each other without competing with each other. The food eaten by the Lesser Flamingos would be too small for the Greater Flamingos and the food for the Greater Flamingos too big for the Lesser Flamingos.
Foraging techniques
Flamingos look for food in flocks that can comprise several thousand individuals. So far, there has been insufficient research into what causes such large clusters to come together and how they are distributed in the food grounds. Studies on Cuban flamingos suggest that the troop density depends on the availability of prey and that groups of foraging individuals attract further individuals and that their form of foraging also gives their conspecifics indications about food density.
Flamingos benefit from foraging together because the individual then has to spend less time looking for predators and other dangers. Usually, however, searching for food together does not improve the amount of food consumed. There seem to be exceptions to this, however: on the salt lakes near Larnaka , Cyprus, Greater Flamingos occasionally look for food together in three or four long rows. The zoologists Alan Johnson and Frank Cèzilly suspect that the birds in front scare off so many Artemisia that they cannot catch them all, but that they are caught by the birds that walk behind them. Thin-billed gulls occasionally join the flamingos and also benefit from the feeding animals that are stirred up.
Streaking through shallow water areas as they slowly advance is certainly the most typical feeding technique for flamingos. Occasionally, however, flamingos also swim while foraging and look for food on the bottom of the water like swans. Sometimes they tilt their body axis vertically and paddle their feet to hold their position. Another technique that only occurs in flamingos is what is known as “stamping”. The flamingo, standing in the water, holds its beak under the water and turns in a circle with quick, stamping foot movements, whereby its beak remains in one place. These movements create saucer-like depressions in the lagoons. Flamingos only use this technique when the bottom of the water is soft. They either ingest invertebrates and their larvae that are buried in the sand or mud, or they eat the mud that they throw up through this movement. They occasionally catch larger prey in a heron-like manner. If, for example, they discover small fish or hermit crabs that are caught in tide pools at low tide , they run quickly towards them with their necks stretched forward and use their beak-like pliers to grab the prey.
Food flights
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Flamingos only breed in areas where they are largely undisturbed and predators cannot penetrate to the colony. Such spots are not necessarily found in waters that provide enough food for the flamingos. Already in the 1950s, it was reported that the Lake Tengiz distances of 30 to 40 kilometers were flying far brooding Pink Flamingos in search of food daily to wetlands in the Zavolzhye in search of food. It was not until the 1960s, however, that it became known how great the distances are that individual populations cover. One of the first populations to be studied in more detail were the Cuban flamingos, which brooded on Bonaire . Their main source of food, a salt lagoon in the area of the island, was cut off from the water supply in 1969. While a small part of the island's population switched to other food sources, the greater part of the population began to seek out feeding grounds 140 kilometers further south on the coast of Venezuela.
Similar findings have now been made for other populations and regions. Greater flamingos are considered to be the species of flamingos that makes the longest foraging flights. At the Laguna de Fuente de Piedra in inland Spain, greater flamingos only start breeding when rainfall in the previous autumn and winter has led to a sufficient water level in the lagoon. However, the lagoon begins to dry up in spring and often falls completely dry in early summer before the young birds have fledged. The surrounding wetlands provide food for only a small fraction of the breeding flamingos in the lagoon. A large proportion of the birds that breed there seek food in the Guadalquivir estuary and the Bay of Cádiz , which are between 140 and 200 kilometers from the breeding colony. Flamingos fly into the feeding grounds during the night. In the breeding colony, they first gather in the evening hours on the section of the bank that is closest to their target area. At sunrise they fly up in one or two groups, first circling over the lagoon to gain altitude, and then pulling away at dusk. They need at least two hours for the distance that they have to cover. Most flamingos stay in the feeding grounds for at least a day and return the next night. In some, however, it has been observed that they break up again immediately after feeding the young, so that at least a smaller number can travel at least 300 kilometers at night.
Reproduction
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In the greater part of their range, flamingos are opportunistic breeders who only start breeding when their habitat offers them suitable conditions. Usually this is the case after prolonged, heavy rainfall. It is therefore necessary that flamingos get into breeding mood very quickly and synchronously with each other. There is still a controversial discussion in the literature as to whether the strongly ritualized imposing behavior with its behavioral elements performs this function. At least in captive flamingos, an increasing frequency and intensity of the imposing behavior has been determined immediately before the start of breeding. However, the zoologists Alan Johnson and Frank Cézilly consider it much more likely that the display behavior primarily has the function of finding a suitable reproductive partner. Among other things, this is supported by the fact that the imposing behavior begins long before the reproductive time.
Flamingos are serially monogamous birds, that is, they seek a new partner during each breeding season. Several behavioral elements of the display behavior can be seen as a demonstration of the physical fitness of the individual flamingo. This includes the so-called wing salute , in which flamingos demonstrate the particularly colorful parts of their wings. The intensity of the color indicates to what extent the individual is able to ingest and metabolize carotenoids with food.
Individual elements of the impressive behavior
The nomenclature for the individual elements of the impressive appearance comes from the zoologist Phil Kahl and is still common today. Most of these behavioral elements have been observed in all flamingo species, although they differ in the details. Andean and James flamingo appear to have a smaller range of gestures than the other species.
- Alert posture
- Flamingos, which usually keep their necks bent in an S-shape, stretch their necks vertically upwards. This gesture is mostly seen when flamingos are startled or when they sense danger. Starting from an individual, the neighboring birds take over the gesture.
- Head flagging
- This behavior mostly follows the alert posture . The neck is stretched, the beak is pointed upwards and the head is swiveled back and forth. With increasing duration, the speed increases, which is ultimately twice per second.
- Wing salute
- This gesture often follows head-flagging . With the neck still stretched but held still, the wings are spread and the tail feathers straightened. The flamingo remains motionless in this position for about ten seconds before continuing with another gesture. Since hundreds of birds are often performing the wing-salute almost simultaneously , it appears from a distance as if the colony is suddenly changing its color.
- Inverted wing salute
- In this gesture, the neck is stretched forward horizontally. The wings are only slightly spread, the tail feathers erect.
- Twist-preen
- Here a wing is angled; the wings of the hand hang down, their black coloring is widely visible against the pink bird. At the same time, the head is bent backwards, as if the bird wanted to preen its plumage under the opened wing . The gesture is very short and mostly follows the wing-salute .
- Wing-leg stretch
- One wing and one leg are extended to one side. This gesture is also very short. In the large species it sometimes follows the wing-salute .
- Marching
- A group of hundreds or even thousands of flamingos walk with their chests stretched out and their necks stretched out. They change directions abruptly. Often head-flagging is carried out at the same time. It is not possible to stretch out the wings in the marching groups standing close together.
- False feeding
- This gesture occurs during marching . Before changing direction, the birds put their heads in the water and perform foraging movements before moving on to the next behavior.
- Broken-neck
- The center of the neck is bent so much that the tip of the beak touches the base of the neck. The gesture often occurs during marching .
- Hooking
- This is a threatening gesture in which the neck is stretched out; the head looks down, the beak points back to the chest. The feathers on the shoulders and back are raised. In this way, the flamingo approaches the attacker or a conspecific who needs to be kept away.
- Neck-swaying threat
- This gesture follows the hooking as a further threat if this alone was unsuccessful. The flamingo swings its head up and down, keeps its back plumage upright and makes growling noises. Such a gesture can be followed by a fight. Fighting between conspecifics can occur shortly after pair formation, when the nesting site is chosen. You can no longer see them at a later point in time.
- Display flights
- Small groups between four and fifteen males and females fly up after marching and begin to circle as a group flying close to one another. The way of flight differs significantly from the normal flight of the flamingos. The wing beats are relatively stiff and flatter than usual. At times the wing beats seem to be synchronous between several individuals in the group. The group sometimes circles the colony a few times, but they usually stay in the air for about 30 minutes. In the Camargue, such display flights can be seen especially in spring.
Colonies
One of the most striking features of flamingos is the high degree to which they live in colonies. Colony breeding has developed independently several times in different bird orders and is particularly common in water birds. All species of flamingo have several characteristics that are typical of compulsory colony breeders. These include the small breeding grounds they defend, the formation of crèches or kindergartens for the young birds that have not yet fledged, the lack of an active defense against predators and the fact that the eggshells are not removed from the nest after the young birds hatch.
Except on the Galapagos Islands, flamingos always breed in close proximity to each other and are only very rarely single breeders. The breeding ground they defend is typically very small and usually measures less than the neck length of an adult flamingo from the nest. The willingness to reproduce and the success of breeding seem to depend on a colony having a minimum size of breeding pairs.
Flamingos are monogamous during the breeding season, and often beyond. While they breed annually in some regions, entire colonies fail to brood elsewhere. Flamingos breed in East Africa about every two years. Whether a brood takes place depends on the external conditions, especially the rain and the water level. Sometimes different species breed together in mixed colonies - for example pink and lesser flamingos in East Africa or Andean and James flamingos in South America.
In large colonies in lakes, flamingos build their nests when the water level sinks so much that large parts of the lake have almost dried up. The colonies are smaller on islands. These islands are preferably muddy and without vegetation, but sometimes also rocky or overgrown.
nest
In most colonies, the nests are cone-shaped piles of mud. Such a cone has a diameter of 35 to 56 cm at the base and 22 to 40 cm at the top; the height is usually 30 to 45 cm. In the top of the cone there is a hollow up to 20 cm deep. This mud cone protects the nest from flooding if the water level should rise. Often the partners use an existing nest from the previous year. If this is not available, the mud mound is built by both partners by transporting mud with the beak between the legs and piling it up there. The females are more active in nest building than the males. The nests are very close together. In the huge colonies of the Lesser Flamingos, for example, there are up to five nests per square meter.
In the colonies whose members breed on rocky or overgrown ground, however, a ring of stones or rotting plant material serves as a nest.
Most of the time only one egg is laid. Clutches with two eggs occur in less than 2% of the nests. The eggs are white, sometimes with a bluish tinge. They have a diameter of 7.8–9.0 × 4.9–5.5 cm. The weight is 115 to 140 g. Both partners take turns brooding.
Rearing boys
The young hatch after 27 to 31 days. They initially have a gray down dress and a straight beak. They stay in the nest for five to twelve days. During this time, the adult birds supply them with crop milk , which is produced in the upper digestive tract. With a content of 9% protein and 15% fat, this milk is similar to the consistency of mammalian milk, but is produced by both males and females. The milk is given directly from the adult bird's beak into the boy's beak.
When the youngster leaves the nest, they can walk and swim on their own and form a " crèche " with other youngsters that can comprise hundreds or thousands of individuals. In the Lesser Flamingo there are up to 300,000 cubs who come together to form such a group. The young are guarded by adult birds; initially there is one adult for every ten, later only for every hundred young. The parent birds recognize their own young by their vocalizations; they continue to take over the feeding until the youngster has developed an effective cattle beak at the age of ten to twelve weeks and is no longer dependent on the milk.
Breeding success and life expectancy
Although flamingos often breed for the first time when they are three years old, these broods are almost never successful. In Spain, 91.7% of the broods of seven-year-old birds were observed to be successful. Younger and older birds have had significantly less success. Of the three to five year old flamingos, only 13.6% brought through their young, of the nine year old only 50%. Clutches are threatened by seagulls , crows , birds of prey and marabous, among others . However, unforeseen changes in the water level are more dangerous. If the water rises so high that it permanently floods the mud cones, an entire colony may fail to breed. The other extreme, the sinking of the water level to the point of drying up the area around the nest, is dangerous: the adult birds can no longer find food near the nest, and land predators gain access to the nests. The average life expectancy of flamingos is twenty to thirty years; occasionally the birds can even live up to fifty years. In captivity, if properly cared for, they can live to be over 80 years old.
Tribal history
Flamingos are a very old group of birds that go back to the Oligocene - or even to the Eocene , if the bird genus Juncitarsus is counted among the flamingos. The latter, however, is probably not justified because juncitarsus is closer to plovers in some skeletal features , especially in the tarsometatarsus . The skull of Juncitarsus was not known until 1987 based on the first complete skeleton from the Messel pit near Darmstadt; the beak shows no particular resemblance to undoubted flamingos.
The oldest flamingos are assigned to a family Palaelodidae or subfamily Palaelodinae. The genus Palaelodus was species-rich from the Oligocene to the Miocene , and even as far as the Pleistocene , according to a bone find that could not be clearly assigned . Fossils were found in Europe, North and South America, and Australia.
The recent genus Phoenicopterus is also already described from the Oligocene, in the form of the species Phoenicopterus croizeti .
Systematics
External system
It used to be common to assign flamingos to the walking birds . Not only the external appearance, but also anatomical details are the same: the structure of the dunes of young flamingos as well as the structure of the basin and the ribs show strong parallels to the storks . In the middle of the 20th century it became more common to place flamingos near geese birds . As the young are in these Nestflüchter , toes with webbed connected, and the spring pieces (parasitic on birds mallophaga ) of both taxa are closely related. A third hypothesis was put forward in the 1980s: On the basis of fossil finds and some ethological parallels, it was concluded that the flamingos are related to oystercatchers and avocets and can therefore be assigned to the plover species as a family .
Even more recent molecular genetic analyzes have not brought the hoped-for clarity. The DNA hybridizations of Sibley and Ahlquist initially placed the flamingos back where they were at the very beginning: near the wading birds, from which they would have separated 48 million years ago. Other studies, however, seemed to confirm the goose bird hypothesis, hardly any more the wading bird hypothesis. Besides these three, there is a younger, based on morphological characteristics hypothesis which the flamingos as a sister group of the grebes classifies.
Internal system
There are two concepts of the internal systematics: the division of the flamingos into three genera Phoenicopterus , Phoeniconaias and Phoenicoparrus , or the union of all species in a common genus Phoenicopterus . While the latter variant is the older, the former is not new either: Phoenicoparrus was set up in 1856 by Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte , Phoeniconaias in 1869 by George Robert Gray . Both variants can still be found today. The genus Phoenicopterus differs from the other two by a less specialized lamellar apparatus, Phoeniconaias and Phoenicoparrus are distinguished by the absence or presence of a rear toe. The following is a breakdown into three categories:
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Phoenicopterus
- Greater Flamingo ( Phoenicopterus roseus )
- Cuban flamingo ( Phoenicopterus ruber )
- Chilean flamingo ( Phoenicopterus chilensis )
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Phoeniconaias
- Lesser Flamingo ( Phoeniconaias minor )
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Phoenicoparrus
- Andean flamingo ( Phoenicoparrus andinus )
- James Flamingo ( Phoenicoparrus jamesi )
Flamingos and people
Interrelationships
Flamingos are already depicted in Stone Age cave drawings in Spain that date back to 5000 BC. Go back. In ancient Egypt , a hieroglyph that represented the color red was in the shape of a flamingo. The legendary phoenix was often depicted as a flamingo; from this connection comes the Phoenic root , which is found in the scientific names of all flamingo genera.
For the Romans , flamingo tongues were considered a delicacy that was served at the banquets of the richest. Pliny the Elder describes the excellent taste of the tongues in his Naturalis historia . References to this luxury food can be found over a period of two hundred years. Flamingos were likely to be widespread in the Mediterranean region in pre-Roman times and were significantly decimated by the preferences of the wealthy Romans.
Flamingos were also hunted in other regions of the world, if not for their tongues, at least for their meat and eggs. Several Indian peoples of the Andes have practiced this hunt for a long time, but it was also common in Tunisia , India and Turkey until the 20th century. The feathers , on the other hand, were never in demand because they lose their pink color after plucking.
Flamingos have long been caught for zoos and parks. There it was found that the flamingos lost their pink color and also did not breed. Today it is possible to keep pink and chile flamingos in zoos with a specially developed diet and to enable them to multiply; In the case of small species, however, only very few zoos have succeeded in doing this, as most institutions are unable to provide these highly specialized animals with food of satisfactory quality.
Threat and protection
The IUCN classifies the Greater Flamingo as not endangered and the Chilean, Little Flamingo and James Flamingo as low endangered. The Andean flamingo is the only endangered species. It has its few breeding areas in inaccessible areas of the Altiplano and the total population is estimated at less than 50,000. The James Flamingo was even considered to be extinct from 1924, but was rediscovered in 1957. In 2000 he was downgraded from vulnerable to low risk status.
The other three species are more numerous but can be endangered locally. The Lesser Flamingo is extremely rich in individuals in East Africa, but has only a few breeding areas there. In West Africa it is a rarity with 6000 individuals.
Habitat destruction is particularly problematic for flamingo populations: lakes are drained; Fish are released in previously fish-free lakes and act as food competitors; Salt lakes are developed for salt production and can no longer be used by flamingos. The Andean flamingo is also threatened by the increased mining of lithium in the wake of the trend towards electromobility .
Sources cited
Most of the information in this article has been taken from the sources given under literature; the following sources are also cited:
- ↑ Young-Hui Chang, Lena H. Ting: Mechanical evidence that flamingos can support their body on one leg with little active muscular force. In: Biology Letters. Royal Society Publishing, May 24, 2017, accessed June 6, 2017 .
- ^ Johnson and Cézilly: The Greater Flamingo , 2007, pp. 281 f.
- ↑ Ellewicker Feld and Zwillbrocker Venn
- ^ A b Alan Johnson and Frank Cézilly: The Greater Flamingo . T & AD Poyser, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-7136-6562-8 , p. 120.
- ^ A b Alan Johnson and Frank Cézilly: The Greater Flamingo . T & AD Poyser, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-7136-6562-8 , p. 113.
- ^ CL Casler & EE Este: Caribbean Flamingos Feeding at a New Solar Saltworks in Western Venezuela . In: Waterbirds: The International Journal of Waterbird Biology 2000, No. 23, pp. 95-102.
- ^ Alan Johnson and Frank Cézilly: The Greater Flamingo . T & AD Poyser, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-7136-6562-8 , p. 113 f.
- ^ Alan Johnson and Frank Cézilly: The Greater Flamingo . T & AD Poyser, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-7136-6562-8 , p. 114.
- ^ Alan Johnson and Frank Cézilly: The Greater Flamingo . T & AD Poyser, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-7136-6562-8 , p. 117.
- ^ Alan Johnson and Frank Cézilly: The Greater Flamingo . T & AD Poyser, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-7136-6562-8 , p. 119.
- ^ A b Alan Johnson and Frank Cézilly: The Greater Flamingo . T & AD Poyser, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-7136-6562-8 , p. 121.
- ^ A b Alan Johnson and Frank Cézilly: The Greater Flamingo . T & AD Poyser, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-7136-6562-8 , p. 122.
- ↑ a b c d Alan Johnson and Frank Cézilly: The Greater Flamingo . T & AD Poyser, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-7136-6562-8 , p. 129.
- ↑ MP Kahl: Ritualized Displays . In: J. Kear and H. Duplaix-Hall (Eds.): Flamingos . Poyser, Berkhamsted 1975, pp. 142-149.
- ^ Alan Johnson and Frank Cézilly: The Greater Flamingo . T & AD Poyser, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-7136-6562-8 , p. 32 f.
- ^ Alan Johnson and Frank Cézilly: The Greater Flamingo . T & AD Poyser, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-7136-6562-8 , p. 33.
- ^ Alan Johnson and Frank Cézilly: The Greater Flamingo . T & AD Poyser, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-7136-6562-8 , p. 33.
- ↑ 83-year-old Greater: World's oldest flamingo died in Australian zoo. In: Spiegel Online . January 31, 2014, accessed June 9, 2018 .
- ^ J. Cracraft: Toward a phylogenetic classification of the recent birds of the world (Class Aves) . In: The Auk 1981, No. 98, pp. 681-714.
- ↑ a b D. S. Peters: Juncitarsus merkeli n. Sp. supports the derivation of the flamingos from the plover birds (Aves: Charadriiformes: Phoenicopteridae). In: Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 1987, No. 97, pp. 141–155
- ↑ a b Jiri Mlikovsky: Cenozoic Birds of the World. Part 1: Europe . Prague: Ninox Press, 2002 ( PDF ( Memento of the original from March 7, 2011 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. )
- ^ Alan Feduccia: Osteological evidence for shorebird affinities of the flamingos . In: The Auk 1976, No. 93 (3), pp. 587-601
- ↑ CG Sibley & JE Ahlquist: Phylogeny and classification of birds based on the data of DNA-DNA hybridization . In: Current Ornithology 1983, No. 1, pp. 245-292
- ↑ Marcel Van Tuinen, Dave Brian Butvill, John AW Kirsch, S. Blair Hedges: Convergence and Divergence in the Evolution of Aquatic Birds . In: Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences 2001, Vol. 268, No. 1474, pp. 1345-1350
- ↑ Verkehrswende: On the hunt for lithium report from December 13, 2018 on the online portal on climate change operated by the non-profit association Klimawissen eV klimareporter.de, accessed on March 24, 2019
- ↑ Lithium: Mining and Extraction - Environmental Risks of Lithium Production Report on the website of the business daily Handelsblatt from October 16, 2019, accessed on March 24, 2019
literature
- Josep del Hoyo et al .: Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Ostrich to Ducks. Lynx Edicions, 1992, ISBN 84-87334-10-5 .
- Malcolm & Carol Ogilvie: Flamingos . Alan Sutton, 1986, ISBN 0-86299-266-4
