Notes From the Field: Felicity Arengo

Thursday, September 09 9:25 am

Blogging from Argentina, Felicity Arengo (Associate Director of the Museum’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation) is counting flamingos. Andean flamingos leave their high-altitude lakes and disperse, among other places, to the cattle lands and soy farms of Argentina’s “pampas,” or fertile lowlands, for winter. Arengo and her colleagues have found numerous wintering sites over the last few years and are working to coordinate efforts to protect these birds from habitat destruction due to roads, mining, and agricultural practices, among other factors.

August 20, 2010

Photo courtesy of Felicity Arengo

The day began in my hometown, Rosario, Argentina, with my colleague Marcelo Romano and two students sorting through the gear we’ve gathered for our expedition. We stacked food coolers, rubber boots, and camping equipment on top of the Jeep. Inside we neatly packed our spotting scopes, computers, GPS, and other sensitive equipment. Marcelo and I are conducting a winter flamingo census in several wetlands nestled within Argentina’s primary agricultural zone.

It is winter here and up until last week, temperatures were well below freezing so I’ve come prepared with several wool and fleece layers, a couple of sleeping bags, hats, gloves, and scarves. But today seems almost like a spring day.

This winter census complements a comprehensive, simultaneous flamingo census that was performed in January this year, coordinated by the Grupo Conservacion Flamencos Altoandinos (GCFA). Of the six flamingo species worldwide, three are found in the Southern Cone. The Chilean Flamingo has a broad distribution throughout the region while the Andean Flamingo and Puna Flamingo are more restricted to wetlands in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru. Our counts focus on the latter two species; whose population numbers are cause for concern. With global population estimates at around 35,000, the Andean Flamingo is the rarest in the world, meriting its listing as one of the few foreign species in the US Endangered Species Act.

Photo courtesy of Marcelo Romano

Since 1997, the GCFA, an international initiative of scientists and conservationists, has been coordinating research and conservation activities focused on flamingos and their wetland habitats. The comprehensive censuses are key and involve dozens of trained volunteers simultaneously setting out to reach as many wetlands within the flamingo range as possible within a week’s time. After establishing a baseline with the first-ever reliable estimates of Andean and Puna Flamingo populations in the first few years, the group has since done two follow-up censuses in 2005 and early this year to track population trends. One important aspect we discovered early on is that the Andean Flamingo, originally thought to be relatively restricted to high altitude wetlands of the Andes, actually comes down from the mountains during winter months, particularly if the Andean wetlands freeze, to use the lowland wetlands of the Argentinean pampas. In the past five years or so, we have begun to realize the true importance of these wetlands in the Andean Flamingo’s life cycle.

Photo courtesy of Felicity Arengo

After a few hours driving through the rural countryside, we arrive at Laguna de Melincué, a provincial reserve in Santa Fe Province. Marcelo, a veterinarian and ecologist, has been working with the local NGO (non-governmental organization) Ecosur at this site for the past 20 years. He has witnessed major land use changes first hand. He has been instrumental in drawing attention to this site and its importance for flamingos and other birds, helping to get Melincué officially listed as a “Wetland of International Importance” under the Ramsar Convention to give it an additional level of protection.

Because of the shorter days of winter, the sun is setting spectacularly over the plain as we approach the lake. We set up the night’s camp about half a mile from the lake and will assess how to get closer tomorrow, in daylight. The landscape is flat as a pancake, and the basins are relatively shallow, so rain and wind can quickly change the surface area of the lake. The dusk light allows us a faint view of a pink line in the distance: flamingos! Over the next couple of days, we’ll find out how many of the two species are here and in other nearby lakes.