Abstract
The sun slowly sets down, turning the blue sky into a bright orange/red. There is an instant flash of blue color caused by the plumage of a native Common Kingfisher, quickly flying over the water and vanishing into the trees. The Weltvogelpark Walsrode closes in half an hour. There are hardly any visitors left in the park and a very romantic silence settles over the 24 ha large park area...Suddenly, a very loud and vivid, goose- like cackling penetrates the silence. An animal keeper, doing his last inspection round, parks his Caddy next to the flamingo enclosure. While getting off he claps his hands, shouting “Workday ends! Closing time!”. The cackling becomes louder and a graceful flamingo colony walks in single file, well- behaved like dogs, into an aviary. The animal keeper jumps sportive-elegant over the fence of the enclosure and closes the door of the aviary behind the flamingo colony.
Worldwide six different flamingo species exist: The Red Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber ruber), which occurs in North- Middle- and South-America, the Chilean Flamingo (Phoenicopterus chilensis), which also occurs in wide parts of South-America, the Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber roseus), which is widespread in Africa, South-Europe and Asia, the Lesser Flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor), which only occurs in Africa, the Andean Flamingo (Phoenicoparrus andinus), which lives in South-America, in the high mountain regions of the Andes, and finally, the also in the Andes occurring James’ Flamingo (Phoenicoparrus jamesi).
Only few zoos keep and breed various flamingo species. The Weltvogelpark Walsrode presents three of the six species: Red, Chilean and Greater Flamingo. With more than 240 birds the Greater Flamingo colony is the biggest colony kept in European zoos. Although the different species can be kept in mixed colonies the Weltvogelpark Walsrode presents them separately. On the one hand hybrids shall be prevented and on the other hand the Weltvogelpark likes to emphasize the different species by clearly presenting them separately to the visitors.