by Jolanda di Savoia, Italy (AP) – An unusual scourge is devastating and annoying farmers in northeastern Italy: the flamingo.
Herds of these relatively recent immigrants have hit their hungry sights on the flooded fields that produce rice for risotto in the province of Ferrara, between Venice and Ravenna. The long -legged birds are not interested in the seedlings; Instead, Flamingos use their flippers to generate the ground and take rolluss, algae or insects from the shallow water.
Rice is additional damage.
Farmers started to chase the birds away day and night. They honk the horns of their trucks, pop barrels and even fire small gas guns that make thundering booms. Usually the sound simply sends them to another nearby rice field to be trampled under the foot.
Enrico Fabbri, a local grower, said he was discouraged after seeing production losses of no less than 90% in some of his planted areas.
“These are new things that have never happened before. You invest so much time and care to prepare everything,” said Fabbri, 63, next to one of his paddies on the edge of Jolanda di Savoia. “Then, just as the crop starts to grow, it’s like a newborn child is being taken away. That’s how it feels.”
The flamingos seem to come from their earlier nesting soils in the nearby Comacchio valleys in a reserve on the coast, just south of the Po -River, the longest of Italy, flows into the Adriatic Sea.
The birds have been there since 2000, after drought in southern Spain, they were looking for nesting sites further to the east, according to Roberto Tinarelli, ornithologist and president of the Emilia-Romagna Ornithologists Association.
Earlier they were limited to lakes in North Africa, parts of Spain and a little Camargue region in France, Tinarelli, 61, said next to a pond in Bentivolgio, a city near Bologna.
There have been no studies yet to determine why these flamingos are going to look further in the interior, where farmers flood their fields from late spring to early summer as a means to germinate newly planted rice seeds. Until the paddies are removed after a few weeks, the flamingos pose a threat.
“It is clear that we are looking for answers from those who have to do with the problem. From the point of view, this is all wonderful, but we have to take into account that rice cultivation is one of the most expensive, extensive crops,” said Massimo Piva, a 57-year-old rice detector and vice-president of the local farming confederation.
“They are beautiful animals, it is their way of moving and worn, but the problem is trying to limit their presence as much as possible,” Piva said.
Tinarelli, the orinthologist, suggested various solutions to ward off flamingos that are more humane and more effective than the clamoristic efforts that are currently used: surrounding toads with tall trees or hedges and, even better, reducing the water level of freshly planted mushrooms (30 and 10 centimeters), instead of 12 and 10 centimeters).
“This is enough to grow the rice, but certainly less attractive for flamingos, who have to splash in the water,” he said.
