Scientists in Morocco Use Fake Nests to Entice Flamingos to Breed
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Loading... - Johann Bauer
- 28 Jul 2022
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Scientists in Morocco have set up artificial nests as part of a strategy to tempt greater flamingos to breed in the North African country for the first time in more than 50 years.
The distinctive long-legged birds obliged, in what's being seen as a sign of hope for a species threatened by habitat loss around the globe.
But quite how significant a part the fake nests played in this breeding success story is now under debate.
Greater flamingos are the largest species of flamingo. Although these wetland-nesting birds are found in their thousands across 40 sites in Morocco, until now the last time breeding pairs were recorded in the country was between 1957-1968.
Those birds nested at Lake Iriki in south-eastern Morocco -- but then a dam was built on the Draa River feeding the lake and the flamingos' breeding site dried up.
Finally this year a team that included members of the Research Group for the Protection of Birds in Morocco (GREPOM) has confirmed the presence of at least 120 breeding pairs of greater flamingos at the Khnifiss Lagoon, more than 840 kilometres (520 miles) southwest of Rabat. Read More...
