No flamingoes to Helsinki Zoo this year

At least 40 birds needed to form proper flock

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Jukka Salo, the director of Helsinki’s Korkeasaari Zoo, says that the zoo will not bring in any new flamingoes this year, after the entire flock was wiped out earlier this month.
      A group of experts is currently considering options for the replacement of the birds. One option is not to acquire flamingoes at all. Another possibility is to get Chilean flamingoes, or one of the other flamingo species.
     
One key factor in the decision is that flamingoes need a fairly large flock to thrive.
      “For flamingoes to do well in a zoo and multiply, at least 40 individuals would be needed”, Salo points out.
      Decisions are expected in the autumn, and the new pink beauties might come to the zoo next year at the earliest.
     
All of the zoo’s 16 Chilean flamingoes died on April 8th, when a fox attacked their enclosure.
      It turns out that only two were actually savaged by the fox, and the rest were found to have died of shock in the melee. Flamingoes are known to be very susceptible to panic.
      The fox was able to get at the birds because they had been left outside for the night.
      The carcasses of the flamingoes are to be donated to the Finnish Museum of Natural History to be stuffed and mounted.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Fox kills all flamingoes at Korkeasaari zoo (9.4.2010)

Links:
  Korkeasaari Zoo, Helsinki

Helsingin Sanomat