Yet more baby Chileans!
And right on cue, as predicted by the aviculturists, the Chilean flamingo chicks are hatching at WWT Slimbridge and can be seen tottering around the nesting area of the South American Pen. I'm not going to go into masses of detail about the unpredictability of Chilean flamingo breeding patterns, as I have mentioned that before in the last post I did, but needless to say the Slimbridge team have been keeping everything crossed that the Chileans would breed successfully this year and raise their own chicks. And it seems that their wishes have been answered.
Chilean flamingos are a near threatened species and their natural history and specific habitat requirements are still the subject of much research, speculation and uncertainty. What can make wild flamingo conservation tricky is that birds can be hard to monitor, follow and record regularly. Consequently every chick hatched in a captive flock is important for the future preservation of this species in safe environments, such as those at WWT Slimbridge and other centres that house them. And they are undeniably very cute too!
