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Two London Zoo Baby Flamingos 'Scared of Pink'
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by Amy Judd | June 18, 2009 at 03:22 pm
255 views | 14 Recommendations | 2 comments
Two new residents at the London Zoo, young baby flamingos, are scared of the color pink, and now zoo staff are hoping that when they get older and develop their own pink plumage, that they won't be scared of themselves. They currently have grey downing feathers as they are still very young.
The birds are named Little and Large, and Alison Brown, 30, a keeper of birds at the zoo, said: "To try to encourage Little to feed by himself we've been wearing a hand puppet which imitates adult flamingos, but unfortunately he was really terrified of the socks."
Flamingos can take up to a year to turn pink, and Mrs. Brown is confident the pair will adjust in time.
She said: "We'll just have to hope they get used to the colour pink, but I'm sure it won't be a problem. Once Little gets his own pink colour he'll be fine."
The bigger one, Large, weighs 800 grams already, while Little is only 584 grams. When they were born they were fed a formula of shrimp and mackerel with vitamins and minerals mixed in to make sure they grow strong and healthy.
But Ms Brown is not concerned for the smaller chick: "Little just needs to learn to eat by himself and then he'll start putting on weight and get as big as Large.
"It's not a worry at all, Little is just taking his time at learning how to feed himself. It can take up to 45 days, or a little longer. We put them in housing together so he can learn how to feed from Large."
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (2)
at 17:55 on June 18th, 2009
I thought pink flamingos got that way from eating shrimp. Maybe they could keep them on a mackerel diet. I wonder what happened to Mom.
at 18:35 on June 18th, 2009
Well, what about their instincts too? I guess it is like the story of The Ugly Duckling!
I want to see them!!
My sister in law has a flamingo collection. My brother had me to make some eggs for her
to discover in her garden under her collection. They were concrete which I sprayed. It
has been a fun item to give at "gift " times.