Drought kills thousands of flamingos in Turkey

Thousands of young Greater Flamingos have perished at Lake Tuz, Turkey, in the past fortnight due to a drought.

Drone footage of the large saline lake in Konya province showed dead flamingos lying dead on the dried mud, with environmentalists blaming climate change an agricultural irrigation methods for the lake drying out.

Lake Tuz is home to a huge Greater Flamingo colony, with around 10,000 young born in colonies there each year. The lake was declared a specially protected area in 2000, yet environmentalists claim that water supplies from a canal which feeds the lake were being redirected for farming.

The exact number of young Greater Flamingos that have perished at Lake Tuz is unknown, but thought to be well into the thousands (Craig Nash).

A report published last year by Turkish environmental foundation TEMA found that, in 2020, the annual water reserve in central province of Konya's close basin was 4.5 billion cubic metres, while the consumption reached 6.5 billion cubic metres.

Environmentalist and wildlife photographer Fahri Tunc said water supplies from a canal which feeds Lake Tuz were being redirected for farming.

"This is the irrigation canal that comes from Konya. It needs to deliver water to Lake Tuz. As you can see, the water is not coming through. It stopped," he said.

Tunc added that only 5,000 eggs had hatched in the colony this year and most of the chicks had died for lack of water on the partially dried lake.

However, Turkish Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Bekir Pakdemirli, denied that agriculture was to blame.

"With less water and increased concentration ratio in the water, we observed deaths of flaminglets that were unable to fly," he said.

"I want to stress that there is no direct or indirect connection between this incident and the wells in the area or the agricultural irrigation."