00:01The famous pink flamingos of Kenya's Rift Valley are fading in both color and
00:07numbers as changing lake conditions threaten their fragile ecosystem.
00:15What's happening in that in this case that the Alucanine lakes in the in the
00:19Rift Valley area the water levels have been increasing and which have been
00:25attributed to rain and in some aspects which has not been quantified at issues of
00:31geology and as water rises the infidelics are becoming much more fresh water so
00:39if you see like places like Mongolia it's almost touching Lake Maringo and in
00:46that case the water chemistry changes which is affecting the food base of the
00:50lesser flamingo so in that case we don't you're not finding as many flamingos
00:55as you would initially find in these lakes because there's no much food for them.
01:01Flamingos depend on cyanobacteria a microscopic organism rich in carotenoid
01:08pigments that gives the birds their distinctive pink feathers. As this food
01:12source declines experts say the birds not only lose their color but also forced to
01:18migrate in search of more suitable habitats. Flamingos are categorized by them
01:23being pink in color and the coloration of the pink color pigmentation of their
01:32feathers is is highly associated with the food that they eat so as a flamingo grows
01:39from a chick through to an adult the pink color is mainly of of adults not of any
01:46other groups any other age groups of the flamingo and this is associated by the
01:50by the food that they eat because they the red the algae that they eat on they feed on the
01:59cyanobacteria is considered to provide that pigment of to the flamingo and in this case if the food the the
02:11the the the the the the quantities of the of the cyanobacteria is not
02:16is low you find that the pigmentation becomes a bit more reduced researchers say
02:24the flamingos are acting as an early warning system for broader environmental change
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