Environment retrieves seven flamingos from tourist lodging in Puerto Plata

Puerto Plata, DR—The Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources reported confiscating seven Caribbean flamingos from captivity in a tourist lodge in Puerto Plata.

Technicians Luis Aníbal José Amparo and Indira Sánchez, inspectors of the Wildlife Regulation and Control Department of the Biodiversity Directorate, rescued the birds at Flamingo Jungle, an accommodation space offered through the Airbnb platform.

The authorities of the place refused to hand over the birds voluntarily, so the entity proceeded to seize the birds through “Rescate Rosado.”

The birds will undergo a recovery and readaptation process to be released.

The rescue operation, headed by the prosecutor Domingo Belliard, assigned to the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for the Defense of the Environment and Natural Resources, was supported by agents of the National Environmental Protection Service (Senpa).

The Ministry of the Environment technicians who participated in the rescue of the seven flamingos reminded us that buying or selling these birds constitutes an environmental crime.

“The migratory species, which forms unique pairs, face risks that could affect its future generations, placing it in a vulnerable position on local and general conservation red lists,” said the technicians of the Department of Wildlife Regulation and Control of the Biodiversity Directorate, of the Vice Ministry of Protected Areas.

ROSÉ RESCUE
The Rescate Rosado project, a conservation strategy for the Caribbean flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber), addresses the situation of habitat loss and nesting, as well as the threat of illegal capture of the birds for display in tourist establishments or on private farms.

The institution carries out the Rescate Rosado project together with the Parque Zoológico Nacional Arquitecto Manuel Valverde Podestá and in collaboration with the Grupo Acción Ecológica, whose technicians have already carried out several flamingo releases.

The integral program to conserve the flamingo promotes research, management of the species, and public awareness. Many tourist establishments are joining the initiative by voluntarily releasing captive birds.

The project includes the removal of the flamingos from hotels or places where they are in captivity, the quarantine process at the National Zoo, and then their release in an area of the species’ natural distribution.

The operation also seeks to guarantee the management and protection of this species by training essential stakeholders to make decisions that contribute to the stability of the Dominican Republic’s flamingo population.