Since he was 4 years outdated, photographer Claudio Contreras Koob has been obsessive about flamingos: their vibrant pink feathers, horn-like curved beaks, and stylish, poised necks.
Born and raised in Mexico Metropolis, Koob visited the Yucatán Peninsula yearly all through school holidays. His father constructed a house on sand dunes throughout the port village of Chuburna, between the ocean and wetlands, and collectively they watched flamingo colonies accumulate throughout the lagoons and muddy swamps that stretched for miles behind the house.
“It was a very gorgeous sight after we had been able to identify a pink-orange mass of birds throughout the distance,” says Koob. “That stayed in my memory.”
The Caribbean flamingo lives in salty wetland and coastal waters spherical Mexico, the US and the Caribbean. Credit score: Claudio Contreras Koob / Nature Picture Library
Koob hopes his intimate portraits of the hen will help others to “fall in love with flamingos” and encourage them to care in regards to the wetlands the place they dwell.
From lab to lens
Koob’s childhood fascination with nature led him to assessment wildlife biology on the Nationwide Autonomous School of Mexico, the place he took a course in microphotography and located “what the language of photos would possibly do,” he says.
Combining his passions, Koob focused on conservation photos when he left school. He joined the Worldwide League of Conservation Photographers which in 2009, requested him to grab the tagging of flamingo chicks in Yucatán.
“When you occur to disturb one, they start screaming and flying away, and you will set off a panic. They may go away the entire eggs, and abandon the colony,” says Koob.
Koob spent years gaining the idea of the flamingos so that he would possibly {{photograph}} their nesting colonies and youthful chicks. Credit score: Claudio Contreras Koob / Nature Picture Library
Koob says his “sluggish technique” to pictures enabled him to assemble intimate photos of the flamingos. He usually wore camouflage, army crawling all through muddy flooring to get close to the birds with out scaring them.
On some occasions, he took a ship into the lagoons sooner than dawn so the birds could be accustomed to his presence by daybreak, and stayed until after nightfall. “That is sturdy, with the photo voltaic and 40 ranges (heat),” says Koob. “It is extremely consuming for the physique.”
Pretty in pink
In distinction to individuals, flamingos are properly tailor-made for his or her extreme environment.
Flamingos use their hooked beaks to feed on shrimp, mollusks and algae that are rich in carotenoids, the pigment that provides them their pink coloring. Credit score: Claudio Contreras Koob / Nature Picture Library
Their weight-reduction plan contains algae, shrimps and mollusks containing huge portions of carotenoids — the similar pigments that give fruit and veggies like carrots, pumpkins, and tomatoes their coloring — and which might be accountable for the flamingo’s signature hot-pink look, says Koob.
Wetlands beneath danger
Flamingo conservation has been a extreme priority for Mexico given that Seventies and ’80s, when it established two federal wetland reserves on the Yucatán peninsula, later designated as UNESCO Biosphere Reserves.
As a lot as 50,000 vacationers come to see the flamingos yearly at Ría Celestún (pictured) — although Koob warns that this would possibly disrupt their consuming habits. Credit score: Claudio Contreras Koob / Nature Picture Library
Now, Koob is once more in Yucatán, staying in his childhood trip dwelling in Chuburná, photographing the wetlands. This time, horseshoe crabs are his focus, and he hopes he can proceed to draw additional consideration to the wildlife and communities dwelling there.
“For most people, the wetlands is type of a smelly, darkish, creepy place. Nonetheless it is stuffed with wonders — and the flamingo is just one of them,” says Koob.
