Flamingo, Atecama Salt Flats
Smack bang in the middle of Chile are the Atecama Salt Flats. All those years ago when the Andes decided to pop up they ended up reclaiming some of the sea and when the water evaporated it left behind a tonne of salt.... in a kind of flat way. So when you look out across this 400km sq salty desert all you see are lumpy bits of salt... and some ponds.
Interesting fact is that in these ponds very little can live as it´s so salty. So pretty much all that exists are some specialist plankton and some brine shrimps... which are eaten by flamingos. And it is these shrimps and the keratine in their shells which makes the birds pink. The older the bird, the more shrimp dinners and therefore the pinker it becomes. In fact zoos supplement their birds diets to make them pinker
.... I wonder if you could make a blue flamingo?
Interesting fact is that in these ponds very little can live as it´s so salty. So pretty much all that exists are some specialist plankton and some brine shrimps... which are eaten by flamingos. And it is these shrimps and the keratine in their shells which makes the birds pink. The older the bird, the more shrimp dinners and therefore the pinker it becomes. In fact zoos supplement their birds diets to make them pinker
.... I wonder if you could make a blue flamingo?
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