Not a pink flamingo any more: diet changes the colour of Adelaide flamingo

The last of the flamingos in Australia is not a pink flamingo any more. He is now orange. The feathers of the 74-year-old Chilli, a male flamingo at Adelaide Zoo, are turning orange due to a change in his diet.

Chilli is a Chilean Flamingo. His usual diet is shrimp. Pink shrimp. Shrimp has been eliminated from Chilli’s diet because the zoo can’t source sufficient stocks. Instead, his favourite food is ‘flamingo broth’ that his zoo keeper, Di Pearson, prepares for him. The carrot in the broth is turning his feathers orange. He also eats live pupae and mealworms.

The reason that Chilli is fed carrots is because they contain carotene. In the wild, flamingos eat algae, which contains carotene. In the wild, the algae maintains the health of their pink feathers. In Chilli’s diet, the carotene is also keeping his feathers in good health. Pearson said, ‘Even though he’s old, his plumage is still really well maintained and obviously the carrot is doing its job.’ But carrots in the diet changes the colour of his feathers.

The Adelaide Zoo was established in 1883, and the flamingo exhibit opened in 1885 with 17 Greater Flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus). Chilli’s enclosure is in the original position, with a pond and bamboo trees. The Greater Flamingo is from coastal saltwater lagoons in Africa, southern Asia, and southern Europe. It is the largest species of flamingo, averaging 110-150 centimetres (43-60 inches) tall and weighing 204 kilograms (450 pounds). Its feathers are pinkish-white, and it bill is pink bill with a black tip. Carotenoid pigments in the organisms that the flamingo feeds on gives it the pink colour. The average life span of the Greater Flamingo in captivity is 60 years.

The drought of 1915 in South Australia resulted in many flamingo deaths at Adelaide Zoo.

Chilli, the Chilean Flamingo (Phoenicopterus chilensis) arrived at the Adelaide Zoo in 1948. Chilean Flamingos are closely related to the Greater Flamingos, but are smaller at 110-130 centimetres (43-51 inches) tall. It lives in South America, from Ecuador and Peru to Chile and Argentina. Its feathers are pinker than the Greater Flamingo’s feathers.

I grew up in Adelaide, and the flamingos used to walk around the zoo and mingle with the public. This practice stopped in 2008 after the bashing of a flamingo called Greater. In 2008 there were only two flamingos at the Adelaide Zoo: Chilli and a Greater Flamingo called Greater, or Flamingo 1, who arrived in 1933. Greater died in January 2014 at the age of 83 years. He had arthritis and was in ill health.

So Chilli is the last of the flamingos in Australia. Due to biosecurity concerns, Australian zoos are prohibited from importing more flamingos.

Chilli and Flamingo lived together for 65 years. Without his long-time companion, Chilli now has a mirror by the pond so that he thinks he still has his friend. Chilli is 74 years old with poor eyesight, but he likes to look in the mirror. Lately he has been suffering from health problems, including arthritis. In winter he stays inside in his heated enclosure.

I visited Chilli in March 2015, 18 months ago, and he was looking good. The photographs are of Chilli at 73 years old.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/chilli-australias-only-remaining-flamingo-has-turned-orange-after-a-dietary-change/news-story/0b83f8764ba510648aef5de516859734

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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