What the flamingos taught us in 2020
Twenty-twenty. It's finally drawing to a close. Even though many parts of the world ground to a halt due to the pandemic, looking after the flamingos at WWT continued as normal. So what have we learned about the pink birds in a year of pandemic?
It’s been quite the year. One that many of us might be looking forward to putting behind us. In spite of the trials and challenges, and working through a global pandemic, there are still new areas of flamingo science that have opened up this year, and WWT’s pink bird projects continue. This “end of 2020” post for the flamingo diary aims to expand on the positive side of this year- what’s been going on, what have we found out about the fabulous flamingos, and what new information can we share.
As WWT moves to address the big challenges facing wetlands and the wildlife within them as part of its “Refocus for the Future” initiative, the flamingos (and other animals in wetlands) are excellent ambassadors for spreading this message about the importance of wetlands to human and animal health and wellbeing. The Flamingo Diary will explore this link more in the new year.
The Chilean, lesser, Caribbean and Andean flamingos and even Mr James himself all featured in research that explored the friendships that we have been documenting the WWT Slimbridge flamingo flocks over the past eight years. This work sparked much attention around the globe and was picked up by many media outlets. I think because it links so nicely to what we see in humans; the complex relationships, the specific individuals we get on with, the individuals we like to avoid. The different forms of friendship we have and how they can remain stable over many years or how they peak and trough with the flow of our lives. You can find more details of this work here.
Flamingo relationships are very similar. Some birds show a consistent pattern of associations throughout the course of their lives. Some flit in and out of friendships with different seasons. The same individual patterns of association are seen across all of the different species, meaning that each individual bird makes its own choices as to who to hang around with. The WWT Slimbridge greater flamingos featured in a research paper that was published in 2018, which also shows the complexity of flamingo friendships in a really large flock. You can see an example of how flamingos will move around each other, and how they will make a point of getting another bird out of their way, in the video below.
Some birds have partners in and out of the breeding season; some birds find a new partner for the breeding season but keep some “general friends” too. Some birds have a range of other members of their flock that they will spend time, moving between them freely. Such social butterflies might be the most important for how we manage our flocks in the future- it is these birds, with their flexibility in making friendships, that are the best candidates for moving to form new groups or moving to go and live in other flocks with other birds, where they would be more capable of forming bonds in a new social environment. This knowledge of animal behaviour is crucial to the long running management of the animal collection at WWT, as it allows the expert living collections team to ensure that all the care provided to the animals is based on sound scientific evidence. We wouldn't, for example, separate the two Andean flamingos that you can see filter feeding together in the video below; these are a long-standing pair and clearly have chosen to specific enjoy each other's company. We can judge this by observing what the birds do, apart and together, and see how much time they spend in close proximity.
Behaviour is always a key theme of the research that we do at WWT. And the next “flamingo finding” of 2020 specifically concerns the WWT Slimbridge lesser flamingos. One of my MSc students from University Centre Sparsholt, Laura, analysed video footage that I took of the birds during my PhD data collection. We looked at differences in time the bird spent feeding and being aggression and how these behaviours might be influenced by where the flamingos were feeding, how many were feeding together as well as the colour of the flamingos- are brighter pink birds more aggressive than paler ones? We found that flamingos need room when foraging. The more room they have to feed, the less time they spend squabbling. Again, this work captured the imagination of various media channels and shows the global impact that WWT's research, involving its animal collection, can have. Pinker flamingos were more likely to be aggressive and generally seen to forage less than paler birds. You can see what the aggressive behaviours look like in the video below.
These data can help us plan how we feed the flamingos, when do we give them their flamingo pellet and how do we spread out amongst the flock? By encouraging more foraging activity (by making sure birds are not crowded when they feed), we can save money as less pellet will be wasted and more birds will eat their fill in comfort. The large enclosures we provide to the flamingos are really good at encouraging natural behaviour, and you can see the natural foraging activities of the lesser flamingos in the video below.
This work also feeds (bad pun) into the social behaviour work too. There was no influence of the bird's sex (male or female) on the amount of time flamingos spent feeding or being aggressive. And this suggests any form of hierarchy or dominance within a flamingo flock is more likely to be based on individual bird characteristics, such as plumage colours, rather than by genetically controlled traits (such as sex). This research also showed that when more birds were feeding together, there was more likely to be instances of aggression. You can find out more about this study here.
This work also featured in the June edition of WWT's WildWatch, online nature series, where I filmed (in part!) in my back garden using some plastic flamingos to illustrate what this research means. Check out this colourful edition of WildWatch below!
So why the lesser flamingo for this project? This is a Near Threatened species on the IUCN Red List and therefore the captive population is important for safeguarding the bird's future. By studying them in detail, we can find out more about their lives under human care and we can share this information with other organisations that hold these birds, ensuring that all lesser flamingos, wherever they are kept, have the opportunity to behave as naturally as possible. By looking closely at key behaviours that link to good animal welfare (i.e. foraging activity) and by assessing a characteristic of the birds that we know links to how well they are feeling (i.e. how pink they are), we get an instant assessment of how much "being looked after" influences their wellbeing and behaviour patterns.
I hope you have enjoyed seeing the relevance of these two pieces of flamingo research. Let's hope that we can keep the flamingo science going in 2021 and that next year is an altogether less challenging affair for us, our birds, and our visitors. But until then, stay safe and well and I wish you all a flamtastic Christmas and a very Happy New Year.
