| | Words in the News |
INTRO | | BBC east Africa correspondent Cathy Jenkins reports on the return after 64 years of pink flamingos to Lake Nakuru in Kenya. |
IN FULL | |  | Listen to the report in full |
 |  | 28th December 2000 Pink flamingos arrive in Kenya |
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NEWS 1 | | | Listen to the first part of the report |
| | | From afar the flamingos which line the edge of Lake Nakuru are a shimmering carpet of pink. Close up they're a cacophony of flapping wings, about eight hundred thousand pairs of wings, according to researchers and there are soon to be more. For the first time since 1936 the pink flamingos have chosen to breed at Nakuru and people like Daniel Koros, of the WorldWide Fund for Nature are very happy about it. "I think we are quite excited that they are doing this now. We've already observed several birds sitting on eggs in the north of the lake and also a few to the south." |
WORDS | | flamingos: birds with pink feathers, long thin legs and a curved beak
shimmering: shining with a faint light
cacophony: a loud unpleasant mixture of sounds
chosen to breed: the flamingos have 'decided' to mate and produce new offspring at this particular location.
observed: watched |
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| NEWS 2 | | | Listen to the second part of the report |
| | | But the breeding is one bright note in an otherwise worrying picture. Lake Nakuru is under pressure both from natural factors like changes in the weather and from the pollution which comes from thefactories on the edge of Nakuru national park. The scientists are worried about a build up of heavy metals in the water including lead, zinc and mercury. These are absorbed by the algae which are eaten by the pink flamingos. Doctor Gideon Motelin, lecturer at nearby Egerton university, says that overall the population of pink flamingos is on the decline. To try to reverse the trend environmentalists have approached the local factories asking them to cut down on the harmful waste they produce. But out of a hundred and sixty factories only sixteen havetaken the environmental issue onboard and even these, according to a report, mostly lack the technical expertise to introduce effective changes. |
| WORDS | | pollution: unpleasant and harmful substances in the air, the water and the environment
a build up of: a gradual increase in
absorbed by the algae: taken in by the small plants that the flamingos eat
on the decline: becoming fewer
to cut down on: to reduce havetaken the environmental issue on board: have considered and accepted there is an environmental problem |
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