Since 2006 there have been additional population crashes at Nakuru and Elmentia (Table).įlamingos numbers in Lake Nakuru are perhaps one of the most visually impressive responses to episodic but very high organic productivity levels, driven by a well-adapted species feeding in a layered saline water body subject to periodic salinity stress (Warren, 2011). At the same time, birds were gathering in places they have never been documented before. Previous mass die-offs occurred at Lake Nakuru and two other Kenyan lakes in 1993, 1995, and 1997, as well as at two lakes in Tanzania in 2002. In 2006, more than 30,000 of the birds were found dead at Nakuru, leaving enough pink carcasses to spur an international newspaper to describe the lake as a 'flamingo death camp.' Two years prior, 43,800 of the birds had perished at Tanzania's Lake Manyara, the first significant die-off documented at that alkaline, soda-rich lake.

Flamingo population levels in Lake Nakuru and any mass 'die-offs' are popularly considered as indicators of the environmental health of Nakuru and other lakes in the African rift valley with significant flamingo populations. An aviator once described Lake Nakuru as 'a crucible of pink and crimson fire,' with a million flamingos painting an astonishing band of colour that burst into pieces as the birds took flight (Figures).

Why can flamingos survive lake natron