Hambantota flamingo brine shrimp foraging: Artemia salina population cycles in salterns?
3 Answers from travellers
Greater Flamingos (Phoeniconaias roseus) gather in the shallow coastal salterns of Hambantota and Bundala primarily to feed on brine shrimp (Artemia salina) and beta-carotene-rich Dunaliella salina microalgae. Artemia thrive in intermediate evaporation condensers where water salinity sits between 70 and 150 PSU—levels too high for predatory fish to survive. Under these optimal brine conditions, Artemia reproduce rapidly. Flamingos wade through shallow pans at dawn, sweeping curved bills upside down through the water to filter shrimp biomass through microscopic bill lamellae.
Heavy monsoon rains lower pond salinity below 50 PSU, allowing fish to enter and wipe out the brine shrimp population within weeks.
Carotenoid pigments metabolized from Artemia are deposited into developing flamingo feathers, creating their pink and crimson plumage.
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