Rising water levels threaten East Africa’s flamingos

The population of lesser flamingos in East African countries including Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia is declining, in part due to rising water levels in the “soda lakes” the birds call home, new research has found.

The findings, published in the scientific journal Current Biology, revealed that rising water levels are destroying cyanobacteria, commonly known as blue-green algae, which the flamingos feed on. That species of cyanobacteria only grows in the highly salty and alkaline conditions of soda lakes.

But more water in the lakes, which have no outflowing rivers, has diluted them, reducing their salinity and limiting the growth of the food that the flamingos depend on. The researchers concluded that only half of the lakes that provided high-quality feeding habitats in 2000 were still suitable for flamingo diets in 2022.