Ringing operation at the Salin d’Aigues-Mortes: 600 Greater Flamingo chicks ringed

600 greater flamingo chicks ringed on Wednesday 2 August 2023 at the Aigues-Mortes salt marsh

Around 150 volunteers took part in the ringing of 600 chicks, an essential stage in the study of flamingos. The operation involves fitting each chick with a ring bearing a unique code that can be read from a distance. The chicks, gathered in a “crèche”, are surrounded by the participants and taken to an enclosure where they are ringed, weighed and measured. After being handled for just a few minutes, each chick is released into the pond where it joins the rest of the crèche that has not been captured. Ringing flamingos in no way alters their subsequent behaviour. Numerous studies have shown that neither survival nor reproductive success is affected by wearing a ring.

A long-term scientific programme

Ringing is part of a study programme that began when the Tour du Valat was set up in 1954, and has been strongly structured since 1977. Every year since then, the Tour du Valat has fitted several hundred flamingo chicks with rings that enable each individual to be identified and tracked.

These observations now constitute a database that is unique in the world, enabling conservation measures to be put in place that are adapted to the local context and the needs of the species. These emblematic birds, which depend on shallow brackish and saltwater lagoons, remain a vulnerable species, as most of the wetlands on which they depend are under threat.

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