Thousands of tourists flock to northern Tanzania’s Lake Manyara National Park every year to watch pink flamingoes, but recent mass deaths of the birds have brought a new tragedy.
”The death of more than 10 000 flamingoes in Lake Manyara is a real tragedy and we are still puzzled with the cause and nature of the mysterious disease that has struck these beautiful creatures,” Tanzania National Parks (Tanapa) director general Gerald Bigurube said.
He said it was surprising other animals in the park have not been affected at all.
”They all feed in the same lake, but are still safe.”
”Experts from Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute [Tawiri] and other relevant institutions have been in Manyara for the last four weeks conducting various studies on the soils and the lake to establish the nature of the problem,” Tanapa spokesperson James Lembeli said.
He said Tawiri recently sent samples of flamingo carcasses to the Leibniz Institute of Fresh Water Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Berlin, Germany, for laboratory testing.
”We hope a conclusive report will come out soon,” he said.
Lake Manyara National Park is located 125km west of the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha, from where it is a 30-minute flight or a two-hour drive.
The park covers 330 square kilometres of which 230 square kilometres is the lake’s water body.
Flamingoes normally colour the lake pink as they arrive during their migration to feed on minute animal and vegetable matter, such as algae, since they move in huge colonies, Bigurube said.
Apart from flamingoes, the park is particularly known for its tree-climbing lions, which may be seen sleeping off the heat of the day on a branch, instead of a shady spot on the grassy ground, like most other lions.
Other animals also frequently seen are leopards, zebras, impalas, baboons, monkeys, wildebeest, giraffes, buffalos and elephants.
Hippos can be seen either basking or submerged in the hippo pools near a neighbouring forest.
Wildlife authorities say that because of the lake, many birds are attracted to the national park.
”The park sometimes records over 100 species of birds a day, with common ones being herons, white stork, flamingoes of different species, caspian plover, African cuckoo and kingfishers,” Lembeli said.
He recalled similar cases of flamingo deaths in alkaline lakes in neighbouring Kenya and other parts of Tanzania, along the Rift Valley, during the past three years, but the magnitude of the Lake Manyara deaths this year is alarming.
”We are informed that similar flamingo deaths had occurred in the Kenyan lakes of Nakuru, Bogoria and Elementaita, as well as Natron and Empakai in Tanzania, but the number of deaths at Manyara this year is just too big,” Lembeli added.
But Bigurube dismissed as false suggestions that the population of flamingoes at Lake Manyara could be wiped out, saying there are millions of the birds, which have very fertile and long lives.
”Flamingoes can reproduce every two years, while their lifespan is a couple of decades. That is why there are so many around. This disease is just an unfortunate temporary phenomenon,” he said.
”We are doing everything to save them. There is no reason yet to believe the disease could wipe out the birds,” he added. — Sapa-AFP