Flamingos in the Black River

A surprisingly large population of flamingos has found a new home in the neighbouring Black River alongside the N2.

Professor Les Underhill, director of UCT's Animal Demographic Unit, says: "It's not the first time that flamingos have been found it the river, but it is rare. It seems that even though there's an awful lot of junk in the river, the water is remarkably clean for the birds to be there."

In the past the river's health has been contaminated by the Athlone sewerage.

About 300 Greater Flamingo species have been spotted in the river, many of them young birds. Underhill explains that they would have come a long way to find clean water bodies.

Flamingos are usually found in places such as the West Coast National Park and the Strandfontein sewerage vicinity. Other birds such as Avocets and Black-winged Stilts have also been spotted along the Black River in "spectacular abundance".