Flamingos are the latest wildlife species to take advantage of the human population being on lockdown as over 100,000 have flocked to Mumbai and painted the city pink.
It’s not unusual for flamingos to visit Mumbai. From September to May these birds spend time living in the city’s lakes. However this year, the number of birds that have flocked to the the capital of Maharashtra state in western India this year, expected to break records.
With the city under lockdown, the lack of human activity has welcomed in the swarms of flamingos.
Tens of thousands of birds have turned a Mumbai lake into a pink paradise. The birds usually migrate to Mumbai in September and stay until May for feeding, according to Rahul Khot of Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) who spoke to CNN.
150K flamingos have taken over Mumbai while city is in lockdown.
(Yes, those little dots are all flamingos). pic.twitter.com/0iFwU6twYp— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) May 1, 2020
In 2019, the number of flamingos recorded was 134,000 but it is estimated that the number for 2020 will surpass this by the end of the month, according to BNHS.
In March of 2020, BNHS counted 125,000 birds, before the country went into lockdown.
Khot said to CNN:
‘They are being reported from places where they have earlier been reported less in number because there is no human activity there now,’
Tens of thousands of flamingos have returned to Mumbai as humans stay home pic.twitter.com/n1bnmRa023
— ༻⋆≺ Martin 🏳️🌈 ≻⋆༺ (@KlatuBaradaNiko) May 5, 2020
Record number of flamingos paint Mumbai pink during lockdown – https://t.co/mBdDoyVRfX pic.twitter.com/b1Kc8ofbKM
— Lonely Planet (@lonelyplanet) May 4, 2020
A sea of flamingos has been flocking a lake in Mumbai pic.twitter.com/b6NlZMniuB
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 1, 2020