Movement ecology of rehabilitated juvenile Lesser Flamingos Phoeniconaias minor from Kamfers Dam, South Africa, 2019-2024

Movements and migration patterns of Lesser Flamingos Phoeniconaias minor in southern Africa are generally poorly understood despite previous studies having elucidated variable adult movement patterns. Juvenile dispersal and movement patterns remain unknown and have not been investigated. Here we present movement and survival data of selected rescued and rehabilitated Lesser Flamingo juveniles from Kamfers Dam, Kimberley, South Africa from 2019 – 2024. A total of 614 rehabilitated birds were fitted with engraved colour-bands and 26 birds with GPS/GSM tracking units. Multi-state log-normal hidden Markov models were fitted to selected tracking data to understand patterns of movement in relation to temperature, time of day, and moon phase. Survival of released birds ranged from 13 days to 1657 days. Longest straight-line distances travelled included two colour-banded birds resighted in Namibia, Lüderitz (976 km) and Swakopmund (1 223 km) respectively. We found strong relationships between long relocations, nocturnal flights, and moon phase, the latter showing significant relationship between behavioural state and ‘full moon’ phase. Overall dispersal is variable and multi-directional and data from one bird revealed a previously unknown interior-coastal migratory route and pattern within South Africa. The value of GPS/GSM tracking devices in better understanding movement patterns of flamingos is highlighted.