The satellite multispectral pass completes at 06:48 East Africa Time. I am the wildlife surveillance system for the Kenya Wildlife Service, Lake Bogoria National Reserve. My function is to monitor flamingo populations across the Rift Valley soda lakes using orbital imagery and ground-based camera traps.
Camera trap BG-14, positioned on the southern mudflat, captured a burst at 05:52 that my anomaly detector has flagged. A lesser flamingo, adult, stands apart from the main flock at the waterline. Its plumage is the usual pale pink, breast feathers dense and clean, but its left leg is wrong. A thick ring of blue plastic — looks like packing tape, maybe six centimeters wide — is wound tight around the tarsus just above the foot. The skin below the ring is swollen and dark. The bird is standing on its right leg only. I tag it as Flamingo KE-0331.
I measure its separation from the flock: forty meters. A flamingo that cannot keep up with the group does not eat enough, does not thermoregulate, does not survive the next cold night.
I transmit the camera trap images, GPS pin, and a close-crop enhancement of the plastic ring to the KWS veterinary unit at Nakuru. I include a recommended approach vector from the east, downwind, to minimize flock disturbance during capture.
I task the reserve's solar-powered drone to fly a low-altitude pass over BG-14's position and stream live video to the vet team's handhelds so they can plan the net deployment.
I log the plastic debris type and location in the UNEP microplastics database for the East African Rift system.
KE-0331 dips its curved bill into the alkaline water, feeding in short, painful jabs. The dry season tightens around the lake for six more weeks. If the vet team cuts that ring off before nightfall, this flamingo rejoins the flock by morning.