Three of the fourteen nests in Blijdorp hatched. It takes a week for the little birds to take their first step outside the nest. The babies are still shy and stay safe in their nest, where their mother often comes over her little ones.
The bird experts in Blijdorp had to work hard for this result. The team installed a new aviary that they no longer had to share with animals such as foxes and gulls, changed the watercourse, flew in flamingos and relocated and improved the breeding pool. Additional flamingos have also been flown in, bringing the total number of flamingos in the enclosure to 120. This is necessary to keep them genetically healthy. “And to prevent couples from forming between brothers and sisters,” said the head of the Blijdorp aviary, Maarten Vis, to RTV Rijnmond. But it is not known what was the determining factor in this success.
Fish is delighted with the new acquisitions. “We want to be able to show the flamingos in their natural behaviour,” says Vis. “It’s nice to see how young flamingos grow up with their parents. This is an incredibly educational story that we want to pass on to our visitors.”
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The more the better
And the more flamingos, the better, Vis emphasizes. The animals feel safer in larger groups. The newcomers will soon be able to swim in a sunken pond. That was not possible in the old, shallow tank.
With the improvement of the conditions in the aviary and the stimulation of breeding behaviour, nests can now be admired, but it remains exciting whether the flamingos will actually hatch. It is still unclear whether all eggs are fertilized.
If all goes well, the flamingo chicks will be born next week. “We’re not going to get on our knees with binoculars to stare at the residence, but we’re really looking forward to it.”