Auckland Zoo's flamingos
Auckland Zoo first started investigating the importation to NZ of greater flamingos in 1996, in preparation for the opening of their African Pridelands exhibit.
A new health import standard for the import of the flamingos had to be established with the New Zealand MAF (Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries) before any of the birds could be allowed into the country. Once the import health standards were approved, the Zoo went about sourcing a viable captive flock from which to breed our flamingos.
one day old chick, still drying
Earlier in 2001, Auckland Zoo's Senior Bird Keeper spent several months in the UK assisting the first part of the project: the incubation and hatching of flamingo eggs in a strictly controlled quarantine facility. The first successful hatching took place on the 18th May 2001, with subsequent hatchings until the 23rd June. New techniques had to be developed to hand rear the birds without their parents. The chicks had to be fed every six hours on a special diet of herring, shrimp, baby food, oil and supplements. The feeding procedure alone took two hours.
7 day old chick
When the last chicks were 35 days old, they were given their final check and placed in their special travelling boxes. There were four birds to a crate; each was individually housed. The specially designed crates allowed feeding either through side-hatches or by removing the lids. The birds had their legs restrained, and were suspended in purpose-built hammocks, not unlike human "baby-bouncers".
In July, the young chicks faced a 52 hour journey as airfreight from the UK to Auckland Zoo.
The most hazardous part of the journey for the baby flamingos was the 10 hours road transit from Gloucestershire in England to Prestwick in Scotland. They had to adjust to being confined, to motion and to noise.
The first leg of the flight was to Luxembourg. On this sector they had their first airborne feed. The lids were removed for this operation. Some minor bandaging had to be done as the bills of some of the chicks had rubbed on the hessian walls of their compartments. The chicks transferred aircraft at Luxembourg. Their crates were placed in the live animal area, well away from the noise and dust of the runways, and cargo operations. Throughout the air transits, the crates were located near the nose of the aircraft, to allow the accompanying keepers easy access.
En route to Auckland, the lids were removed and feeding resumed every six hours. There was fuelling stop in Bangkok and a discharge and loading of general freight in Melbourne. By this time the birds were beginning to show some signs of stress – the final feed consisted of a high protein mixture. Throughout the flight the birds had kept up a constant orchestration of vocal sounds increasing in intensity as their feeding time came around. However, due to all the risk management and good handling, not one bird was lost.
Arrival at Auckland Airport was at 0230 on Monday 30th July, and after inspection of health papers the consignment moved the short distance to the quarantine facility at Auckland Zoo, where they were to spend their first month.
at Auckland Zoo, after quarantine
Vero Marine, for Royal & SunAlliance NZ, provided a specialist livestock insurance package for the transit. The sum insured was based on the cost of incubating the eggs, rearing the chicks, the airfreight, the specialist packaging and the cost of attending keepers. Our underwriters were involved in assessing the risk of each sector of the transit, and assisted with some risk management suggestions learnt from other specialist livestock transits. We were able to rely on the experience of our colleagues in our Group's worldwide network, but much of our knowledge came from a close working relationship with the caring and dedicated people at Auckland Zoo.
As young flamingos they lack the pink feathering for which the birds are famed. This pink plumage develops over their first three years, due to the carotenoid pigment in their diet, which is high in alpha and beta-carotene. (Humans eat beta-carotene when they eat carrots). The typical flamingo diet consists of diatoms, seeds, blue-green algae, crustaceans and molluscs. Using their long legs and partially webbed feet, flamingos stamp on the muddy bottom of lagoons to mix the food particles with the water. Lowering their heads into the water upside-down and moving them from side to side the flamingo collects the food/water mixture using their large beaks. Their spiny, piston-like tongues act to pump the mixture past tooth-like ridges on the outside of the beak and the lamellae, or finger-like projections, inside the beak act as strainers to remove the food particles from the water. Different species of flamingo have slightly different shaped bills, the different shapes helping to obtain slightly different types of food.
The Zoo's flock of greater flamingos have an excellent genetic diversity, and will hopefully be a source of future breeding stocks in Australasia. Ten breeding pairs were selected. Auckland Zoo is the first in the Australasian region to make a determined effort to play a role in the survival of these threatened birds. Even although flocks of up to 20 million greater flamingos can still be seen migrating through central Africa, some experts have estimated that these flocks will be extinct by 2050. High levels of toxins produced by industries surrounding the flamingos' breeding grounds are thought to be responsible for their dwindling numbers. They live in large groups in concentrated numbers in fragile wetland habitats that are becoming polluted and fragmented.
Click on the links below for previous Photo Features
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