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.
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).
A sad day when Chile passed from our world.
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