VISITORS at WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre were surprised and excited to see a television broadcaster and naturalist,Sir David Attenborough pop in to find out more about the centre's six species of flamingos today.
Filming for his television show, Natural Curiosities which compares and contrasts very different species, Sir David chose Slimbridge as it's the only place in the country that has all six of species of flamingo, including James, Andean, Caribbean, Chilean, Lesser and greater.
Sir David also spoke to WWT Slimbridge's resident flamingo expert, Paul Rose.
Paul said: "It was great to see our vice president David Attenborough here today. Sir David has been a great friend of WWT over many years, ever since our founder Sir Peter Scott mentored him in his early broadcasting years. Sir David was clearly very taken with the beauty of our flamingos and it's no surprise as they're one of our most popular birds."
The flamingos were all on fine form in the hot weather, especially down by Flamingo Lagoon where there are now 35 fluffy chicks, a record even by Slimbridge standards, beating the previous record of 25 chicks in 2010.
Four of the world's six flamingo species are classed as 'Vulnerable' or 'Near Threatened' by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. WWT's flamingos are part of its wider conservation work to protect these iconic wetland birds.
