‘Pensioner’ flamingos, aged 20 and 28, at Larnaca salt lake
Two flamingos observed at the Larnaca salt lake have been determined to be living to a ripe old age, environmental NGO BirdLife Cyprus reported.
In a post on social media BirdLife said the birds, which had been ringed as chicks, were found to be 20 and 28 years old.
Images of the two flamingos were captured by photographer Yiannis Ioannou and republished by the NGO.
“It is amazing what we can learn through ringing and such findings are truly fascinating,” BirdLife’s post read.
According to the post, one of the birds was ringed in the Camargue Regional Natural Park in France in 1996 and the other in the Hermes/Gediz River Delta Turkey in 2004.
Flamingos in the wild can live for up to 20 or 30 years, while one flamingo kept in a zoo lived to the advanced age of 83, according to National Geographic.