There are not many predators of Andean flamingos. Culpeo foxes (Lycalopex culpaeus) may take eggs or newly hatched young. Large, predatory birds may also sometimes take young flamingos. Humans have also been known to hunt flamingos and collect their eggs. Andean miners once believed that the fat of flamingos was a cure for tuberculosis.
Known Predators:
Andean flamingos have the typical flamingo form with long, thin legs and neck. The average Andean flamingo stands 1 to 1.4 meters tall with a wingspan of 1 to 1.6 meters, and a weight of 1.5 to 4.1 kg. Plumage is light pink, with the head, neck, and upper breast a darker red. The curved bill is yellow and black. They have three-forward pointing toes, lacking their fourth toe. Juvenile Andean flamingos are grey before they develop their light pink plumage. These are the only species of flamingo with yellow legs and a red spot between the nostrils. They also have very deep bills and stiff lamellae on the lower jaw to help filter fine particles for consumption and keep other larger particles out.
Range mass: 1500 to 4100 g.
Range length: 1 to 1.4 m.
Range wingspan: 1 to 1.6 m.
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; homoiothermic; bilateral symmetry
Sexual Dimorphism: sexes colored or patterned differently; male more colorful
The lifespan Andean flamingos in the wild is unknown. They are believed to live for twenty to thirty years. In captivity some flamingos have lived to 60 years old.
Andean flamingos live in highland salt lakes of the Andes mountains from 2,500 to 4,950 m above sea level, but usually occuring between 3500 and 4500 meters elevation. Their habitat mainly consists of large alkaline or saline lagoons with soft sediment bottoms. These habitats are often characterized by relatively sparse vegetation. In winter these flamingos may move to lower elevations in search of food. Of the three types of flamingos living in the Andes (Chilean flamingo, James’ flamingo and Andean flamingo), Andean flamingos live in the most diverse set of habitats.
Range elevation: 2,500 to 4,950 m.
Habitat Regions: temperate ; terrestrial
Terrestrial Biomes: mountains
Aquatic Biomes: lakes and ponds; temporary pools; brackish water
There are many ways in which flamingos communicate with each other. One is the wing salute where they spread their wings for a couple seconds, showing off its colors. They also stretch the neck and flip up its tail. Vocalizations are common. A honking vocalization, similar to the sounds that geese make in flight, is used to keep groups together. They also growl and grunt while mating and during aggression.
Communication Channels: visual ; acoustic
Other Communication Modes: vibrations
Perception Channels: visual ; ultraviolet; tactile ; acoustic ; ultrasound ; chemical
Andean flamingos are considered vulnerable and are difficult to breed in captivity. Northern Chilean populations were severely decimated by a drought. They are now protected by being listed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, and the Convention on Migratory Species. A separate and self-sustaining population of Andean flamingos is being kept at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in the United Kingdom.
US Migratory Bird Act: no special status
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: appendix ii
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: vulnerable
There are no negative impacts of Andean flamingos on humans.
Andean flamingos have been exploited by humans rarely in the past, probably because they tend to live and breed in remote, bleak areas.
Positive Impacts: food ; ecotourism
Andean flamingos impact populations of aquatic algae, diatoms, and plankton.
Andean flamingos use filter feeding to capture small particles at the sediment/water interface. They have narrow and deep lower mandibles which allow them to capture small particles, most commonly diatoms (in the family Bacillariophyceae, genus Surirella) and algae, such as blue-green algae Spirulina plantensis.
Animal Foods: zooplankton
Plant Foods: algae; phytoplankton
Other Foods: microbes
Foraging Behavior: filter-feeding
Primary Diet: herbivore (Algivore)
Phoenicoparrus andinus (Andean flamingo) is found in the Chilean Andes of South America, which includes southern Peru, north-central Chile, western Bolivia, and northwestern Argentina.
Biogeographic Regions: neotropical (Native )
Flamingos are monogamous for several seasons. Male flamingos display their feathers and plumage in an effort to court females.
Mating System: monogamous
Andean flamingos breed in December and January, variation may be related to rainfall patterns. Andean flamingos begin breeding once they have become fully colored adults, usually at three to six years old. Flamingos breed colonially, with up to thousands of individuals, sometimes in mixed-species groups with Phoenicopterus chilensis or Phoenicoparrus jamesi. Breeding groups of as few as 50 have been observed.
Flamingo nests are made purely of mud. Flamingos scoop up mounds of mud with their beaks and then smooth the mound with their feet. They then form a small, cone shaped bowl on the top. A small moat is dug around the nest. Nests are often reused, and built close together. These nests generally stand around 0.31m in height.
Andean flamingos lay just one egg at a time. The egg is a pinkish white color, and is incubated by both parents for 27-31 days. The average egg is around seven centimeters long and weighs approximately 113-141 grams.
Newly hatched flamingos are covered in white/grey down feathers. They live in the nest for the next five to eight days before forming crèches (groups of chicks). These crèches, which can contain hundreds of chicks, are taken care of by only a few adult flamingos. It takes six to ten months before chicks are ready to fend for themselves. For several months adults feed their young "crop milk", food and secretions from the parent's crop.
Breeding interval: Breeding occurs once yearly.
Breeding season: Breeding usually occurs from December to January, but is more common during rainy seasons
Range eggs per season: 1 to 2.
Range time to hatching: 27 to 31 days.
Range fledging age: 9 to 13 weeks.
Range time to independence: 6 to 10 months.
Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female): 3 to 6 years.
Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male): 3 to 6 years.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; fertilization ; oviparous
Both parents incubate the eggs and care for the young. Hatchlings are cared for communally in creches by a rotating set of flock adults. Parents come to the creches throughout the day to find and feed their young, individual recognition doesn't seem to pose a problem. Hatchling flamingos are fed by their parents for an extended time, even after their beaks have become fully functional for filtering food.
Parental Investment: pre-fertilization (Provisioning); pre-hatching/birth (Protecting: Male, Female); pre-weaning/fledging (Provisioning: Male, Female, Protecting: Male, Female); pre-independence (Provisioning: Male, Female, Protecting: Male, Female)
The Andean flamingo (Phoenicoparrus andinus) is a species of flamingo native to the Andes mountains of South America. Until 2014, it was classified in genus Phoenicopterus.[3] It is closely related to James's flamingo, and the two make up the genus Phoenicoparrus. The Chilean flamingo, Andean flamingo, and James' flamingo are all sympatric, and all live in colonies (including shared nesting areas).[4]
It is distinguished from other flamingos by its deeper lower mandible and the very long filtering filaments on the maxilla. It is the largest flamingo in the Andes and is one of the two heaviest living flamingos alongside the taller greater flamingo.[5] Reportedly body mass of the Andean flamingo has ranged from 1.5 to 4.9 kg (3.3 to 10.8 lb), height from 1 to 1.4 m (3 ft 3 in to 4 ft 7 in) and wingspan from 1.4 to 1.6 m (4 ft 7 in to 5 ft 3 in).[5][6]
The flamingo has a pale pink body with brighter upperparts, deep vinaceous-pink lower neck, breast, and wing coverts. It is the only flamingo species with yellow legs and three-toed feet.[7] Its bill is pale yellow near the skull, but black for the majority of its length, and curves downward. Its lower mandible is less apparent than those of the genus Phoenicopterus.
Juveniles present a uniformly pale gray plumage. It is often duskier on the head and neck. Coverts and scapulars can have darker brown centers. Meanwhile, adults are overall pale pink, with the feathers on the lower neck and chest being much brighter pink; coverts may be similarly bright pink. Head and upper neck may be a brighter pink than the rest of the body, which can appear almost white with only a pale pink wash, but head and upper neck never as bright as the lower neck and breast. Primaries and secondaries black, which when wings are folded, appear as bold black triangle that is not obscured by other feathers.
Fossils attributed to Andean Flamingo have been found at the Salar de Atacama border and roughly date to the Early Formative period, approximately 3,000 to 2,200 BP. These fossils date to a period consistent with the onset of modern climate conditions that the species now inhabits.[8]
These flamingos are filter feeders and their diet ranges over the entire spectrum of available foods, from fish to invertebrates, from vascular plants to microscopic algae.[9]
The flamingos feed from the bottom layer of the lake for small particles, mainly diatoms.[10] They have a deep-keeled bill; the upper mandible is narrower than the lower, creating a gape on the dorsal surface of the bill.[11] The bill morphology facilitates feeding of diatoms through inertial impaction. This mechanism entails that food particles denser than water, such as diatoms, would impact the filtering surface in the bill, causing water to flow out of the mouth and leaving diatoms in the flamingo's bill.[10] The flamingos forage in shallow salty waters for resources. They exhibit the most flexible foraging pattern compared to that of the Chilean and James's flamingos.[12]
When grouping the Andean flamingos with Chilean flamingos or James's flamingos, Andean flamingos adopt the foraging patterns of the species with which it is grouped.[12] Thus, when grouped with Chilean flamingos, they use a moderate and deep foraging depth strategy more than or the same as expected. If they are grouped with James's flamingos, they adopt the edge and the shallow foraging strategy.[12] However, the overall foraging behavior of Andean flamingos remains unclear.[10]
Very poorly known; the available recordings fall into three distinct call types, but specific information on function lacking. Peep a surprisingly high-pitched (c 2 kHz), short (c 0.1–0.2 s), clear note that sounds rather Passerine-like. Most often given in a quick series that slightly descends, but sometimes also singly. Quack a brief, rough nasal quack or honk-like note that can be given individually or in series. Lower-pitched and shorter in duration than the analogous call in Chilean Flamingo, but slightly higher-pitched than in James's Flamingo. Often heard in flight. Chuckle a quiet, conversational call made up of short, low-pitched quack-like notes. Lower-pitched and less nasal than the Quack call, and typically given in a faster series.
This Andean flamingo is native to the wetlands of the high Andes mountain range from southern Peru to northwestern Argentina and northern Chile. Andean flamingos are migratory, with the ability to travel up to 700 miles in one day. In the summer, they live in salt lakes, and migrate to the lower wetlands for the winter.[13] The cause of this migration from summer to winter is possibly due to the extreme aridity of salt flats during the winter.[14] The path of migration is unknown, but it is thought to occur between the Chilean breeding grounds and the wetlands of central and western Argentina.[14]
Breeding is concentrated in northern Chile, extreme southwestern Bolivia, and northwestern Argentina. During the nonbreeding season, some birds remain around the same wetlands where they bred, but others move to lower elevation wetlands and lakes, including east to the central plains of Argentina, and also north through the Andes to southern Peru.
Vagrant as far north as Conococha in central Peru, to the coast of Peru and northern Chile, to Amazonian Brazil, to southern Argentina, and to coastal southern Brazil.
The Andean flamingo is considered a vulnerable species due to the mining business and human disturbances causing changes in its habitat.[15]
The Andean flamingo's habitat is constantly changing due to human activity. The primary threat to the flamingo population is mining excavations, which occur at the end of the summer rainy season.[16] The habitat of the Andean flamingo is rich in boron compounds, specifically borax.[16] Borax is fairly toxic at high dosages to animals such as the Andean flamingo, but not to humans.[17] Studies testing the effects of borax exposure in animals show that excess boron causes skeletal malformations, cardiovascular defects, and degeneration of testes.[17] Borax is a derivative of boric acid; a study comparing the toxicology of borates determined that salts of boric acid produce comparable effects.[17] A study on the mining environment determined as little as 5 g of borax can produce adverse effects in animal populations, but human workers remain unaffected at these levels.[17] Therefore, the miners remain unaffected while the animals suffer from developmental and reproductive toxicity.
A study on Salinas Lake in Peru showed that mining companies have established themselves adjacent to the flamingos' nesting sites, and some mining is performed near flamingo breeding grounds and feeding sites.[16] Flamingos abandoned their nesting sites if mining was initiated after the establishment of nesting colonies and in close proximity. An increase of hydrocarbon exploration resulted in a decreased success rate for breeding. Less than 1% of the flamingos observed were juveniles.[13] The decreased reproductive success may be due to borax exposure or to an altered environment caused by bulldozers disturbing the lake bed.[16] Mining creates a muddy environment, which entraps flamingos, thus increasing mortality.[16] Surveys conducted on residents near the mining activities report sightings of dead flamingos exhumed by the bulldozers.[16]
The extraction process also affects the water availability.[16] Andean flamingos filter surface water for food, but borax mining pollutes this water.[10] Along with the pollution, the extractions expedite the removal of lake moisture.[16] By limiting the amount of water in the lake, mining companies can increase visibility, thus contributing to more optimal mining.[16] A study comparing the correlation between water availability and flamingo population determined that the number of flamingos was strongly correlated to the proportion of water in the lake.[10] With an insufficient food supply and a disturbed habitat, the decrease in offspring seems inevitable.
Not only are the flamingos' offspring numbers diminished by mining activities, but they are also affected by the egg collection by locals. This illegal hunting has increased over time due to an increase in international demand for flamingo eggs.[14] Poaching is conducted by organized groups within Chile; the group members trap the flamingos and export them to Europe, the United States, and other overseas destinations.[14] The exportation process in conducted mainly in the Altiplano, which is an area that has deep cultural roots in egg poaching.[14] During the reproductive season, local families also take eggs from flamingo nests.[16] The removal of eggs can disturb the nesting process and cause the flamingo to abandon its nest, even if some eggs remain.[16] Egg removal might be acceptable if the local populations were malnourished, but studies on the diets of the local people show no protein deficiency.[16] In the area of study, the common people raise llamas and alpacas, which offer a higher content of protein than flamingo eggs.[16]
Alongside mining activities, unregulated tourism has taken its toll on the flamingos' habitat. Over time, numerous peat bogs have developed throughout the land.[16] These bogs gradually build up and begin to overflow into the lake.[16] When the bogs enter the lake, they decrease the surface area of the water and prevent the flamingos from entering the lake to feed.[16] As a result of the mining and the tourism, new infrastructure, such as highways, are being built into the Andes.[16] Highways now run alongside the flamingos' habitat.[16] With the addition of these roads, accessibility to the flamingos' habitat increases, leading to more commercial mining and tourism, which in turn results in detrimental effects to the Andean flamingo population.[16] The development of new infrastructure has caused severe fragmentation of the lake, diminishing the biodiversity, and increasing the possibility of extinction for all species.[16]
The demand for surface and underground water, energy production, and transportation, as well as unregulated tourism, have all increased in the last two decades. These increases were documented to be most significant in Chile, the main location for Andean flamingo breeding colonies.[13] As a consequence, these areas are concentrated with toxic compounds due to mineral and hydrocarbon exploration.[13] Since the 1980s, the number of successful breeding colonies and the total production of chicks of Andean flamingos declined.[13] As a result, the Andean flamingos are threatened species.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, the Andean flamingo is an "insufficiently known species".[16] Thus, despite being negatively affected for at least the previous two decades, it was finally declared endangered in September 2010.[16] In this announcement, it was stated that this flamingo would be protected under the Endangered Species Act of 1973.[16] Most of the areas in which the flamingos reside, both in the summer and the winter, have been covered by the implementation of national parks. However, these parks are absent in habitats incurring changes. Thus, the main breeding grounds are still susceptible to outside disturbances that decrease the population of the flamingos.[16] Because the Andean flamingo is a recent addition to the endangered species list, few plans have been implemented to protect their species. However, the National Institution of Natural Resources (http://www.nri.org/) is currently developing a plan. This group is working with conservationists to find a way to solve the problems of borate extraction and egg collecting and poaching.[16] The plan consists of an environmental education strategy to inform businessmen, workers, villagers, and any other people who pose as a threat to the flamingos.[16] Local authorities in the Salinas Lake district have created an outpost to prevent illicit actions and to find possible solutions to present problems.[16] Creation of national parks has decreased the egg collecting; however, environmental education will be necessary to eliminate this activity.[16]
The Flamingo Specialist Group, established in 1971, is actively trying to inform the public on the vulnerability of flamingos.[10] They produce an annual newsletter to tell readers the current status of several species.[10] In 2000, this group conducted a census that revealed a total population less than 34,000 Andean flamingos, giving them the label of most rare species.[10] Recently, this group has joined sides with the International Union for Conservation of Nature to create an action plan for the flamingos.[10] A meeting was held in Miami, Florida, in 2000 to develop a group to control an action place to protect the six species and subspecies of flamingos.[10]
Under the auspices of the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals, also known as the Bonn Convention, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Conservation of High Andean Flamingos and their Habitats was concluded and came into effect on 4 December 2008. The MoU covers Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. As of August 2012, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru have signed the MoU. The MoU aims to improve the conservation status of the species and their habitats through coordinated and concerted actions across the range.
Group of Andean flamingos in the Salar de Pedernales in the Atacama Region of Chile
The Andean flamingo (Phoenicoparrus andinus) is a species of flamingo native to the Andes mountains of South America. Until 2014, it was classified in genus Phoenicopterus. It is closely related to James's flamingo, and the two make up the genus Phoenicoparrus. The Chilean flamingo, Andean flamingo, and James' flamingo are all sympatric, and all live in colonies (including shared nesting areas).