Rare flamingos lay eggs after 15 years amid heat wave

Record-breaking temperature in England has helped a rare flock of the Andean flamingos to lay eggs after 15 years.  However, none of them hatched, as they were all infertile and the expectant mums and dads were left without chicks to the rear.

To fulfil their needs as expectant parents, experts at the reserve decided to give them the eggs of Chilean flamingo to hatch and look after as their own. These Andean flamingos residing at WWT Slimbridge, wetland wildlife reserve, England, have become foster parents to chicks from their near-relatives, Chilean flamingos.

According to reports, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust said record-breaking temperatures led six flamingos to lay nine eggs.

Remember when our Andean flamingo flock at @wwtslimbridge began nesting unexpectedly?! While sadly none of the eggs laid turned out to be fertile, the birds have recently become foster parents to some chicks from their Chilean cousins! – Our aviculture team have given them the chicks in the hope that having their parenting needs fulfilled will encourage the birds to produce eggs in future, and from the looks of things our lovely birds are certainly rising to the challenge of parenthood! 💕 – Photo by Sarah Lester

A post shared by WWT (@wwtworldwide) on Aug 10, 2018 at 6:05am PDT

“With the Andeans in full parenting mode, we gave them Chilean chicks to bring up as their own,” aviculture manager at the reserve, Mark Roberts said.

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Chilean flamingos are relatively similar to the Andean. They live side-by-side in the wild but survive on different diets. While Flamingos are fickle breeders and can go years without nesting successfully.

The Andean flamingos have a long life and are capable of breeding well into old age. However, fertility does decline. They last bred successfully in 1999, the reserve added. Slimbridge reserve is the only place in the world where you can encounter all six species of flamingos.