Anyone here have a flamingo on the wall?
Utah man hopes to give lonely pink flamingo some companions
CATHERINE S. BLAKE Associated Press Writer on Sunday, March 30
SALTAIR -- Long-legged, pink flamingo seeking same to share friendship, food and freedom.
That's what the lonely flamingo living on the Great Salt Lake has been thinking for the last 15 years, says Jim Platt.
Since the bird, nicknamed "Pink Floyd," flew the coop from Salt Lake City's Tracy Aviary, he's been gloriously free, but painfully alone.
His only pals are a pack of seagulls and the tourists that snap his picture. Floyd's become a local legend, appearing frequently in winter as a flash of pink on the otherwise drab horizons of the lake.
Now Platt, owner of Dancing Cranes Imports, has made it his mission to bring Floyd some friends.
"Floyd's the picture of health," Platt said. "I know what freedom is, and I think Floyd is having that experience. I'd like him to be friends with others who are having that same experience. They could breed and be a wild flock."
Platt offered to buy -- and release -- the remaining flamingos from the aviary for $1,000 each.
He was politely turned down by the aviary, which called the proposition irresponsible and potentially disruptive to the lake's delicate ecosystem.
Now, Platt's waging a public campaign to get the governor to declare the Great Salt Lake a pink flamingo sanctuary. He hopes every state in the nation will donate a bird. "It could be America's flamingos on the Great Salt Lake," he said. "It could be a tourist attraction."
Floyd is a Chilean flamingo, hailing from high Andes lakes with conditions similar to those at the Great Salt Lake -- high salt content, cold winters and hot summers.
Scientists and bird watchers know Floyd is healthy because he's bright pink, from the color of the brine shrimp he eats. Brine shrimp are the only animal that can live in the lake because of its extreme salinity.
Flamingos in captivity typically have a wing cut to prevent escape. For some reason, Floyd wasn't trimmed, and one day in the late 1980s he took flight. After unsuccessful efforts to recapture him, the aviary left him alone.
Platt recently took out a quarter-page, pink ad in a local newspaper asking people to contact the governor in support of the flamingo sanctuary.
Nearly 260 people wrote in, 235 of them from an elementary school class that filled an envelope and signed the back, "Friends of Floyd."
Gov. Mike Leavitt hasn't made up his mind yet, said spokeswoman Natalie Gochnour. But he's taking his lead from the state experts, and they're less than enthusiastic.
"I don't think we want to have any chance of them getting started as a breeding species on the Great Salt Lake," said Frank Howe, avian program coordinator for the Division of Wildlife Resources.
"If we could look at having some guarantees that flamingos would not procreate out there, then we might be more amenable to the idea," he said. "But the idea of releasing any wildlife that is not native to the area is courting ecological disaster. We don't want the Great Salt Lake to be a proving ground for that."
Environmentalists cite pigeons, starlings and sparrows -- nonnative species that have become pests.
"Would you want to be the guy responsible for releasing European starlings in Central Park? We want to repair damage that was already done," said Patty Shreve, Tracy Aviary curator. "If I could take him off the lake I would."
Because Floyd's gender is not known, releasing birds of either gender isn't practical, Shreve said. And it's difficult to neuter birds. She stressed that a flamingo flock would overwhelm the natural environment.
But Platt isn't buying it, saying the environmental disaster argument is an "intellectual reflex."
"That is one of the cannons of the environmental religion," he said. "Flamingos have been around for something like 60 million years, and I'm guessing that they were probably here sometime in the days of Lake Bonneville."
Anyway, he's not proposing thousands of flamingos, just a few to keep Floyd company. He says the amount of brine shrimp the birds would consume likely won't make much overall difference.
"This is just the way the bureaucracy works," he said, "and bureaucracy doesn't respond well to vision."
There are seven privately owned flamingos in Florida on sale for $7,500 each. While Platt won't endorse it, he said there's no law against surreptitiously buying the flamingos and one day accidentally releasing them on behalf of Floyd.
Utah man hopes to give lonely pink flamingo some companions
CATHERINE S. BLAKE Associated Press Writer on Sunday, March 30
SALTAIR -- Long-legged, pink flamingo seeking same to share friendship, food and freedom.
That's what the lonely flamingo living on the Great Salt Lake has been thinking for the last 15 years, says Jim Platt.
Since the bird, nicknamed "Pink Floyd," flew the coop from Salt Lake City's Tracy Aviary, he's been gloriously free, but painfully alone.
His only pals are a pack of seagulls and the tourists that snap his picture. Floyd's become a local legend, appearing frequently in winter as a flash of pink on the otherwise drab horizons of the lake.
Now Platt, owner of Dancing Cranes Imports, has made it his mission to bring Floyd some friends.
"Floyd's the picture of health," Platt said. "I know what freedom is, and I think Floyd is having that experience. I'd like him to be friends with others who are having that same experience. They could breed and be a wild flock."
Platt offered to buy -- and release -- the remaining flamingos from the aviary for $1,000 each.
He was politely turned down by the aviary, which called the proposition irresponsible and potentially disruptive to the lake's delicate ecosystem.
Now, Platt's waging a public campaign to get the governor to declare the Great Salt Lake a pink flamingo sanctuary. He hopes every state in the nation will donate a bird. "It could be America's flamingos on the Great Salt Lake," he said. "It could be a tourist attraction."
Floyd is a Chilean flamingo, hailing from high Andes lakes with conditions similar to those at the Great Salt Lake -- high salt content, cold winters and hot summers.
Scientists and bird watchers know Floyd is healthy because he's bright pink, from the color of the brine shrimp he eats. Brine shrimp are the only animal that can live in the lake because of its extreme salinity.
Flamingos in captivity typically have a wing cut to prevent escape. For some reason, Floyd wasn't trimmed, and one day in the late 1980s he took flight. After unsuccessful efforts to recapture him, the aviary left him alone.
Platt recently took out a quarter-page, pink ad in a local newspaper asking people to contact the governor in support of the flamingo sanctuary.
Nearly 260 people wrote in, 235 of them from an elementary school class that filled an envelope and signed the back, "Friends of Floyd."
Gov. Mike Leavitt hasn't made up his mind yet, said spokeswoman Natalie Gochnour. But he's taking his lead from the state experts, and they're less than enthusiastic.
"I don't think we want to have any chance of them getting started as a breeding species on the Great Salt Lake," said Frank Howe, avian program coordinator for the Division of Wildlife Resources.
"If we could look at having some guarantees that flamingos would not procreate out there, then we might be more amenable to the idea," he said. "But the idea of releasing any wildlife that is not native to the area is courting ecological disaster. We don't want the Great Salt Lake to be a proving ground for that."
Environmentalists cite pigeons, starlings and sparrows -- nonnative species that have become pests.
"Would you want to be the guy responsible for releasing European starlings in Central Park? We want to repair damage that was already done," said Patty Shreve, Tracy Aviary curator. "If I could take him off the lake I would."
Because Floyd's gender is not known, releasing birds of either gender isn't practical, Shreve said. And it's difficult to neuter birds. She stressed that a flamingo flock would overwhelm the natural environment.
But Platt isn't buying it, saying the environmental disaster argument is an "intellectual reflex."
"That is one of the cannons of the environmental religion," he said. "Flamingos have been around for something like 60 million years, and I'm guessing that they were probably here sometime in the days of Lake Bonneville."
Anyway, he's not proposing thousands of flamingos, just a few to keep Floyd company. He says the amount of brine shrimp the birds would consume likely won't make much overall difference.
"This is just the way the bureaucracy works," he said, "and bureaucracy doesn't respond well to vision."
There are seven privately owned flamingos in Florida on sale for $7,500 each. While Platt won't endorse it, he said there's no law against surreptitiously buying the flamingos and one day accidentally releasing them on behalf of Floyd.
