Scientists at Home: Counting Flamingos

Thursday, August 27, 2020

2 pm EDT

Three Andean flamingoes spread their wings as they prepare to take off from a salt marsh.
© F. Arengo

Join Felicity Arengo, associate director of the Museum’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, as she shares stories about her expeditions to remote wetlands in the Andes mountains to count flamingos.

Arengo and her colleagues in South America recently completed the 6th International Simultaneous Flamingo Census, which aims to compile population estimates for flamingos throughout their range in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru. Find out more about this important effort, carried out every five years by 100 volunteers visiting more than 300 wetlands, and how it reveals interesting population trends and helps focus conservation action, including creating and expanding protected areas.

Watch a recording of the livestream, first aired on Thursday, August 27, 2020.