the sight of millions of beautiful pink lesser flamingos flocking on the lakes of East Africa is breath-taking. But every few years, a mysterious killer wipes out thousands of the birds. Pollution and infectious diseases have for long been fingered as potential causes. But researchers say they have found another culprit.
Geoffrey Codd, a microbiologist at the Scotland-based University of Dundee, and his colleagues claim there is strong evidence that the birds are being poisoned by a naturally occurring toxic cyanobacterium.
It is quite well-known that a lesser flamingo usually feasts on particular species of cyanobacteria called Arthrospira fusiformis . But samples from Kenya's lake Bogoria where 50,000 birds died two years ago, revealed two more species of cyanobacteria
Links:
[1] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/news/peck-and-die
[2] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/newspaper/down-earth
[3] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/thesaurus/pollution
[4] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/thesaurus/infectious-diseases
[5] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/thesaurus/research
[6] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/thesaurus/africa
[7] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/thesaurus/toxins