What Is the Biggest Threat to Flamingos?

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We love flamingos, and if you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you do, too. If you care about these pink birds, then you might sometimes wonder to yourself: what is the biggest threat facing flamingos?

The fabulous fowl can make it through some seriously harsh environments - boiling hot water and high elevations are walks in the park. But that doesn’t mean they can make it anywhere, and that doesn’t mean they are always safe from predation.

It does mean that flamingos are less likely to be feasted on than many other creatures in the animal kingdom. Their remote locations, wading tendencies, and flight abilities make them tough to find and tough to catch for predators that don’t want or can’t deal with that hassle.

That leaves something else - something you and I are very familiar with - as the biggest threat to flamingos.

Humans Are Flamingos’ Biggest Threat

And it isn’t particularly close.

Lions, cheetahs, crocodiles, and more love to chow down on a tasty flamingo, but none of them are influencing rainfall patterns or removing wetlands for industrial development. Flamingo predators could never pose a larger threat to the birds than humans can.

Climate change can impact much of critical flamingo life functions. For example, rain is necessary for flamingo reproduction. Without it, the essential materials for nest building - mud, namely - are less plentiful. Plus, rain ensures abundant food sources. It’s tough to reproduce when you’re struggling to feed yourself, let alone your theoretical offspring. Flamingos choose to mate as a full flamboyance, too - if the resources aren’t there, then their decisions are restricted.

The unpredictability of the climate can flip the switch on a dime and cause severe damage to flamingo communities. Earlier this year, a lake in Algeria that flamingos loved to patronize dried up in the span of a month. Volunteers rescued almost 300 young flamingos and eggs that had been left behind as their adult counterparts were forced to flee with no way to bring them along. It was a miracle that so much flamingo life was saved in that instance, but relying on good Samaritans with trucks to save the day isn’t a sustainable solution.

Human development also instigates habitat loss for flamingos. Human expansion across Florida in the late 1800s and early 1900s led to the draining and destruction of some wetlands that flamingos needed, and it played a role in the bird’s disappearance from the Sunshine State. Huge steps have been taken in the last decades to reverse those wrongs, and progress is clear. But Florida isn’t the only example of this, and not all places that have removed wetlands for human development have taken effective steps to roll back the harm.

Flamingos have a history of adaptability - it’s why these awkward, majestic, dinosaur-like creatures still roam this earth. But it could be difficult for them to adapt quickly enough to the accelerated changes happening around them. Humans are making it increasingly more burdensome.

“While lesser flamingos have dealt with environmental change over the past few million years, the rapid increase in water levels in such a short space of time mean they’re much less able to adapt,” Aidan Byrne, the lead author of a study that researched the productivity of East African lesser flamingos, told James Ashworth of the National History Museum in London in April. “We’re also impeding their ability to move to more suitable habitats by constructing dams, power cables, and other facilities. In the past, the flamingos would have been able to spread to suitable shallow salt pans across the region, but by limiting access, humanity is making it more difficult for these waterbirds to survive.”

It is important to note that most flamingo species are far from being considered in grave danger of extinction. American and greater flamingos are both categorized as “least concern,” Chilean, James’s, and lesser flamingos are “near threatened,” and Andean flamingos are “vulnerable.” So don’t worry, flamingos aren’t going anywhere overnight. But with the volatility of our planet’s climate now and in the future, both man-made and natural, nothing is guaranteed.

“Lesser flamingos are specialist feeders and breeders, with populations already thought to be declining,” Byrne explained to Ashworth. “If lakes like Natron and Nakuru continue to become less suitable, then there could be a sudden drop in population in just a couple of decades.”