Flamingos are found patchily
throughout the world, wherever there are shallow salt pans, brackish waters or
lagoons to exploit. Outfitted with specialized salt glands that allow them to
excrete excess salt they ingest, flamingos can take advantage of habitats that
not many other animals can.
The birds may seem to epitomize
the tropics, but they also live in the Andes, 15,000 feet above sea level,
where they rest on lakes that freeze around them overnight. They sit there like
snowballs, frozen on ice, and as the temperature warms up, they thaw out, fluff
themselves up and go about their business.
A Chilean flamingo that escaped
from a Utah aviary made a home for itself in the Great Salt Lake, where it
lived as a local celebrity for some 15 years and was given the nickname Pink
Floyd.
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