Flamingos are relatively new in the area, reports The Guardian. The birds have settled on the flooded rice fields in the province of Ferrara, between Venice and Ravenna. These wet fields are ideal for the flamingo. This increases the rice for the risotto danger.
The birds would not have immediately taken it on the rice itself, but their flippers are used to toss the ground. As a result, molluscs, algae or insects are torn from the shallow water. However, the rice is also damaged by that floats.
The farmers would now keep watch day and night to chase birds from their rice fields. They honk with trucks, hit barrels and even fire small gas guns that make a deafening sound. It just doesn’t seem to make much impression, reports The Guardian. The flamingos usually go to nearby rice field and continue to search for food.
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Enrico Fabbri, a local risotto farmer, has announced that he is now desperate now that he has almost 90% loss of production. “This has never happened before. And then you put so much time and care in preparations,” said 63-year-old Fabbri. “Just when the crop starts to grow, it feels like a newborn child is being taken away.”
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It seems that the flamingos come from former breeding grounds in the nearby Comacchio valleys, in a reserve on the coast, just south of the place where the river Po.
According to scientist Roberto Tinarelli, who deals with the behavior of birds, the flamingos have been there for 25 years. Because of the drought in southern Spain, they would then have went looking for nesting places further east. Previously, the flamingos were in lakes in North Africa, parts of Spain and part of the Camargue in France, according to Tinarelli in The Guardian.
It is not yet clear why the flamingos went further inland looking for food. That is not a hopeful message for the farmers. Until the rice fields are drained, the flamingos are still a threat.