Visitors’ surprise as David Attenborough drops in to film flamingos
Visitors at WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre were surprised and excited to see a TV favourite, as Sir David Attenborough popped in to find out more about the Centre’s six species of flamingos today.
Filming for his TV show, Natural Curiosities which compares and contrasts very different species, Sir David chose Slimbridge as it’s the only place in the UK that has all six species of flamingo (James’, Andean, Caribbean, Chilean, lesser and greater).
Sir David also spoke to WWT Slimbridge’s resident flamingo expert, Paul Rose. Paul said:
“It was great to see our Vice President David Attenborough here today. Sir David has been a great friend of WWT over many years, ever since our founder Sir Peter Scott mentored him in his early broadcasting years. Sir David was clearly very taken with the beauty of our flamingos, and it’s no surprise as they’re one of our most popular birds.”
The flamingos were all on fine form in the hot weather, especially down by Flamingo Lagoon where there are now 35 fluffy chicks, a record even by Slimbridge standards, beating the previous record of 25 chicks in 2010. With more eggs to hatch, it’s predicted chick numbers could go into the forties!
You can also see flamingos at WWT Llanelli (Wales), Martin Mere (Lancashire) and Washington (Tyne and Wear) Wetland Centres.
Four of the world’s six flamingo species are classed as ‘Vulnerable’ or ‘Near Threatened’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). WWT’s flamingos are part of its wider conservation work to protect these iconic wetland birds.
>> Find out more about WWT’s wetland centres and conservation projects.
