Flamingos with chick Royal Zoological Society via SWNS
In a triumph for conservation, thousands of flamingo chicks have hatched at one of the world’s key flamingo breeding grounds—a salt lake that had nearly dried up five years ago.
Lake Tuz, once the second-largest lake in Turkiye (Turkey), faced desiccation due to high temperatures and a lack of rainfall which led to the deaths of thousands of greater flamingo hatchlings in 2021.
But after a number of initiatives to save the “climate change hotspot” located in the Central Anatolia plateau, the lake is now hosting a new generation of chicks.
Drone footage from June 10th shows about 5,000 of the young birds protected by their parents, learning essential survival skills like feeding and avoiding potential threats in their natural habitat. (See the video below…)
One of Turkiye’s most important wetlands, Lake Tuz (salt in Turkish) draws nature enthusiasts and wildlife photographers from around the world to witness the lake’s seasonal color changes and to steep in the mineral rich water, mud, and salt.
“We will more than compensate for the losses of previous years by raising the population with these chicks during the season,” said Fahri Tunç, President of the Bird’s Eye View and Ecology Association.
“This is great news.
“The current number is more than double that of last year, which was more than double that of the year before,” Tunç told Turkiye’s news outlet DHA.
NASA reported in 2021 that the Mediterranean Basin where the lake is located, is a climate change hotspot because it has warmed at a greater rate since the pre-industrial period compared to the global average.
Satellite images showed the lake was almost completely drying up, threatening wildlife that relies on the algae food source and nesting habitat.
Lake Tuz satellite comparisons – NASA
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The lake, which has no outlet, is fed by groundwater that originates in the northern mountains, by two major streams, and rain that primarily falls in the springtime.
In 1988 water spanned 98% of the lake bed, according to findings published in Regional Environmental Change. But at the start of 2001 only 20% was covered with water and, in 2016, the lakebed was dry. The same happened in 2021, which caused the mass death of young flamingos.
The following year, Turkiye’s general directorate for the protection of natural assets launched a water supply project on the lake, which is 90 miles southeast of Ankara, the country’s capital.
Designed to protect new nestlings, it pumps water into the areas of the wetlands where the chicks nest.
In 2024, the project saw a huge success with no mass deaths of flamingo chicks reported—and this year’s success has wildlife conservationists, like Tunç hoping for a similar outcome this year.
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Watch the video from Anadolu, the state-run news outlet…
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