KENYA: THOUSANDS OF FLAMINGOES UNDER THREAT FROM POLLUTION-RELATED DISEASE.

Record ID: 217095

  • Title: KENYA: THOUSANDS OF FLAMINGOES UNDER THREAT FROM POLLUTION-RELATED DISEASE.
  • Date: 5th March 2000
  • Summary: LAKE BOGORIA, KENYA (FEBRUARY 26, 2000) (REUTERS) 1. LV: SUN RISE OVER LAKE 0.06 2. LV/GV: VARIOUS OF FLAMINGOES AT LAKE BOGORIA (9 SHOTS) 1.05 3. GV/ZOOM OUT: ZOOM OUT FROM FLAMINGOES ON THE LAKE TO DEAD FLAMINGOES ON SHORE 1.15 4. CU: VARIOUS OF DEAD FLAMINGOES (3 SHOTS) 1.32 5. GV/CU: HOT SPRINGS/ DEAD FLAMINGO (2 SHOTS) 1.
  • Embargoed: 20th March 2000 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LAKE BOGORIA, KENYA
  • Country: Kenya
  • Reuters ID: LVAD45ZQ5FNTXOLPJT9GVNGXEVU
  • Story Text: Lake Bogoria in the Kenyan Rift Valley during
    February-March is home to the biggest concentration of
    flamingos in the world -- one of the last havens for a bird
    that has seen its natural habitat gradually depleted over the
    years.

    But now the flamingo is facing a new threat from a mystery
    a killer disease which is striking down the birds at an
    alarming rate.

    Sunrise at Lake Bogoria and a new day for the 800,000
    lesser flamingos who live on the silvery waters in this hot
    and dusty part of Kenya's Rift Valley.

    This lake has been a last escape from the tribulations
    that have faced the flamingo in recent years.

    In 1993 and 1995 thousands of flamingos died from what was
    believed to be a pollution related disease.

    Then came heavy rains as a result of the El Nino weather
    phenomenon in 1997 which led to higher water levels on
    Tanzania's Lake Natron -- the breeding ground for the
    flamingos.As a result the waters were too high to build nests
    and since then not one lesser flamingo has been born.

    And Lake Nakuru, the traditional home of the flamingo, was
    also affected; the floods washed away the lake's specialist
    micro-vegetation and Nakuru was effectively turned into a salt
    plain.

    Some flamingos flew to sewage lagoons where they did not
    flourish but most sought refuge in Lake Bogoria.

    But even here may not be safe.Since July hundreds of
    flamingos have been dying every day.

    Initial scientific studies have shown the flamingos have
    been poisoned by a variety of
    man made toxins probably picked up a few years ago in Lake
    Nakuru which had becoming increasingly polluted from the ever
    growing town on its northern shores.

    Those toxins have slowly been killing the birds since they
    fled to Bogoria and now carcasses of the beautiful bird
    litter the shores of the lake.

    Scavenger Marabou Storks, Bogoria's harbingers of death,
    loiter around the shores of the lake eyeing sick looking birds
    that will make a tasty meal.

    But the Marabous do not know the danger of what they are
    eating and, although it is too early to tell, scientists say
    the storks as well as other flamingo predators like the baboon
    and the fish eagle could themselves die of poisoning.

    While time might have run out for some of Bogoria's dying
    flamingos conservationists hope that by identifying the source
    and cause of the poisoning they could perhaps save the
    species.

    Conservationists from the Worldwide Fund for Nature and
    scientists from universities in Kenya and the United States
    have teamed up do tests on the corpses of the dead flamingos.

    Doctor Gideon Motalin said initial tests revealed a high
    level of heavy metal toxins concentrated in the bird's vital
    organs.

    "Every single bird that we have collected and analysed
    the tissues there are up to 9 to10 heavy metals in the livers
    and kidneys and there are also agrotoxin which were identified
    from the liver," Motalin said.

    The exact source of the toxin has yet to be identified,
    but heavy metals are usually the by-product of industrial
    processing -- sources of employment around Lake Nakuru.

    But there is another problem for these flamingos.With
    nowhere else to go they crowded to
    Lake Bogoria, which in the past was only ever used as a
    transit point while the birds commuted between bigger lakes.

    The flamingos have been here over two years and the
    pressure is beginning to tell.The algae the birds feed on has
    started to run out and the lake is under enormous pressure to
    survive itself.With nowhere else to go the haven has become a
    prison.

    And unless something is done quickly scientists warn that
    there could be an ecological disaster, especially if the
    lesser flamingo -- on which other species also depends -- does
    not survive here.

    "If it continues especially in these eastern Rift Vally lakes
    which we know it accommodates 80 percent of the population, we
    may loose quite a keystone species its possible," World
    Wildlife Fund scientist Jackson Laini said.

    The sight of hundreds of thousands of flamingos taking off
    from the waters of Bogoria has been described as one of the
    greatest natural spectacles on earth.

    It is a paradise that tourists can marvel at, that
    documentaries are made of and it is part of Kenya's great
    natural heritage.

    But humans have again wrought havoc for this beautiful
    bird and unless something is done to rectify the damage they
    have done, this paradise could soon become an enormous
    graveyard.
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