IMPORTANT TO KNOW | FLAMINGO
Flamingo: Helpful Insight
The great East Africa Rift runs through the whole Eastern side of the African continent
including some of the oldest, largest and deepest lakes in the world. Kenya is home to
eight of the Rift Valley Lakes found in Africa’s Great Rift Valley.
Lake Turkana in the far North of the country on the border with Ethiopia (made famous by
the film The Constant Gardener) is Kenya’s largest lake yet very few people travel that far
due to its remoteness. Lake Logipi, Lake Baringo, Lake Borogia, Lake Elementeita and
Lake Magadi are all Rift Valley lakes but few people travel to them also due to remote
locations and lack of infrastructure.
Lake Nakuru (one of three alkaline soda lakes - others being Bogota and Elmenteita) and
Lake Naivasha (freshwater) are more popular due to their proximity and accommodation
options and Nakuru is known for its famous flamingo populations.
The area is literally where the Earth is splitting apart and the lakes are nestled in the
valley floor within a landscape dominated by dramatic escarpments and punctuated by
volcanic cones, steaming fumaroles and some hot springs. Straddling the equator, the
three alkaline ‘soda' lakes are the setting for one of the Earth's greatest wildlife spectacles
- the feeding and movement of massive flocks of lesser flamingos. Numbering up to 4
million birds, they move between the three lakes (and further afield, particularly to
Naivasha) in response to episodic and seasonal changes in the abundance of the algae
on which they feed.
Flamingos are tied to saline lakes with large algal blooms. What is important to note is
that the lakes are generally shallow with relatively small catchments and no surface
outlets. Straddling the equator at altitudes of around 1,500m they are subject to high rates
of evaporation and marked fluctuations in water levels. The alkaline lake waters support
a prolific growth of green algae (Spirulina platensis), the main food of the itinerant Rift
Valley population of lesser flamingos. The alkaline Rift Valley lakes are among the
world's most productive ecosystems and, although these harsh environments are
relatively species-poor, they feed extraordinary numbers of birds.
All three soda lakes are internationally recognised as Important Bird Areas and listed as
Ramsar Sites, on account of the numbers and diversity of birds, including many rare and
endangered species. Records indicate as many as 480 bird species at Lake Nakuru, 450
species at Lake Elmenteita and 370 species at Lake Bogoria. These include 13 globallythreatened and 8 regionally-threatened species. Lake Elmenteita supports the region's
main breeding colony of Great White Pelicans (8,000 pairs) and there are globally
important populations of Black-necked Grebe, African Spoonbill, Avocet, Little Grebe,
Yellow-billed Stork, Black-winged Stilt, Grey-headed Gull and Gull-billed Tern.
1 October, 2015
IMPORTANT TO KNOW | FLAMINGO
Congregations of more than 1.5 million Lesser Flamingos have been counted at Lakes
Nakuru and Bogoria, as they move between the ten ‘Flamingo Lakes' of East Africa.
Such congregations are globally unique and constitute one of the world's most
spectacular wildlife phenomena.
The Great Rift Valley is of global significance as a migratory corridor for 500 million birds
of 350 species which pass through the area en route between their summer breeding
grounds in Eurasia and over-wintering sites in southern Africa. The lakes serve as overwintering sites for large numbers of Palaearctic waders as well as being an important
stop-over for birds on passage.
The lake shore habitats, particularly those of Lake Nakuru National Park, support a
diverse assemblage of large mammals, including important populations of endangered
species such as black (and southern white) rhino, Rothschild's giraffe, lion, cheetah and
leopard.
MORE ON FLAMINGO
The lesser flamingo is the most numerous species in Africa, while the greater flamingo is
more widespread, nesting not only in Kenya’s Great Rift lakes but also from the shores of
the Mediterranean east to western India and Sri Lanka.
Lake Nakuru in Kenya is a world famous haunt of flamingos. It is a shallow, alkaline lake
about 38 square kilometres in extent that at times may have concentrations of more than
a million flamingos.
Whilst these lakes often seem barren, and sterile, they attract huge aggregations of birds
because they produce a great abundance of small animal and plant life at certain times of
year depending on the weather of course which is always difficult to predict.
Water levels in the lakes vary and so do salinity and food levels, so the flamingos wander
from lake to lake, converging on those that contain an abundance of food.
The two different species (greater and lesser) feed differently and where they occur side
by side like East Africa, the lesser is primarily an algal filter-feeder, straining algae from
the upper 5 to 8 centimetres of the lake. On calm days lesser flamingos swim out into the
centre of the large lakes and continue to filter the upper layer of water for its rich algal
supply.
In contrast, the much less numerous, greater flamingos with coarser toothlike projections
on the bill and tongue feed principally on larger items such as mollusks and crustaceans
that the lesser flamingo cannot strain. The greater flamingos also stir up the bottom mud
with their feet and scoop up microorganisms.
1 October, 2015