4,300 flamingo chicks have been born this year in Lake Tuz, Turkey’s second largest lake and one of the largest hypersaline lakes in the world, covering the provinces of Aksaray, Kırıkkale and Konya.
Speaking to Turkish media, Professor Ahmet Karataş of the Faculty of Science at Ömer Halisdemir University in Niğde province, who is in charge of a project to monitor and protect endangered species in Lake Tuz for the Turkish Ministry of Environment, Urban Planning and Climate Change, stressed that the lake is one of the most important flamingo breeding areas not only in Turkey, but in the world.
Karataş explained that flamingos are a species native to the Mediterranean basin that prefers saline wetlands and is found in lakes and marshes from Spain to Kazakhstan, with Lake Tuz being the largest breeding area in this geographical area. It was in the 1990s when birdwatchers detected the first colonies of flamingo chicks in the lake; within the lake, the breeding area is located in the innermost part of the lake, where the flamingo chicks hatch from nests built on sandbanks slightly above the water.
This year, however, experts have detected a decline in the number of flamingo chicks in Lake Tuz. ‘The environment is experiencing extreme drought. Our region is one of the driest in Turkey. In addition, there is agricultural cultivation in the area of high water-dependant plants. Groundwater levels have decreased significantly,’ said Karataş, who recalled that already in 2021 there was a massive death of flamingo hatchlings due to drought.
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Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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