Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vogal Bomb. Here in a large, shallow body of water, hundreds of flamingos might congregate like an avian water ballet team, all preening their pink feathers, resting in the sun, and standing on one leg for hours at a time. Flamingos even sleep that way. It's a puzzle to science why exactly flamingos stand on one leg so regularly, but there
are lots of theories on the subject. It's an impressive ability considering that flamingo's legs are longer than their bodies and most of their weight is oriented horizontally. Humans are oriented vertically, with almost all of our weight in line with our center of gravity. It really should be easier for humans to stand on one leg than four flamingos, but most of us have trouble standing on one leg for ten seconds blood alone four hours, like flamingos too.
Most large waiting birds have the ability to stand on one leg, and flamingos are one of the biggest waiting birds out there. They range from about fifty inches tall that's about but they don't weigh much, just about five to eight pounds that's two to three and a half kilos. Combine their height with their coloring, and flamingos are one
of the most recognizable birds in the world. It's startling to see a large group of pink, red or vermillion birds standing one legged or otherwise in a shallow pond. The color, of course, comes from the food that they eat, including shrimp, which is full of carotenoid pigments, the same thing that makes carrots orange. Flamingos are almost always in groups, anywhere from a few birds to a few hundred or even a few thousand, and they live on every continent
except Australia and at Arctica. They're very social, a sleeping preening their feathers and eating together. To eat, flamingos fish sort of. They stick their heads in the water upside down and suck mud and water in through the front of their beak. The up in the bottom of the beak have bristles that intertwine when they meet, forming a comb like filtering mechanism. The water and mud flow through,
getting pumped out of the sides of the beak. What's left is the flamingos food, usually algae and small crustaceans. They stand on both legs to eat, but on one leg to sleep. It seems like sleeping would require both legs on the ground for balance since the animal is unconscious. So why do flamingos do it? Here are a few theories. Okay, if you stood in the water all day, your skin would prune up. Well, waiting birds have the same problem, and this is where one of the theories comes from.
Maybe flamingos stand on one leg to dry their other off. Since flamingoes alternate which foot they've got in the water, this theory does seem possible, but it's not super popular. Some experts think that the one leg balancing act might have to do with the flamingos brain. Many animals, including dolphins and ducks, only turn off one side of their brain at a time when they sleep, and ducks, along with herons, storks, and geese, have also been known to
stand on one leg for long periods of time. If flamingoes keep half their brain awake while they sleep, that could explain why they sleep on one leg. The leg controlled by the side of the brain that's awake, stays on the ground to maintain balance while the other leg and foot get to rest up for a while. The most common theories, though, relate to hunting and energy conservation. The sense of flamingos legs are so long and make up the majority of the bird's height, it takes a
lot of energy to pump blood through both legs. That's a big strain on the heart. It's possible that pulling up one leg to rest and tucking it up into the body allows the heart to more easily pump blood through the body, since only one leg is fully extended. At the same time, this could conserve body heat. It's like wrapping your arms around your torso to stay warm. The more compact you make your body, the easier it
is to warm up. This is an imperfect theory, though, since flamingoes will stand on leg in both cold and hot weather. There are many scientists who think flamingos keep just one leg in the water in order to better camouflage themselves. A lagoon has lots of long, thin objects in it, including reeds and small trees. A flamingo on one leg could resemble a tree with a thin trunk, especially when seen from inside the water, so a flamingoes underwater prey might think that it's a safe place to swim.
This theory would make more sense, though, if the flamingos prey were a bit more site driven. So nobody is sure exactly why flamingoes do this, but there is an interesting anatomical mechanism that may help explain how a flamingoes ankle is where you would expect the knee to be near the middle of the leg, the knee is so far up in the leg that's usually hidden by the body, and that ankle has something that a human ankle doesn't.
The joint actually snaps shut to literally lock it in place, and some scientists think that this locking chanism may be the key to a flamingo's incredible balancing act. Today's episode is based on the article why does Flamingo stand on one leg? On how stuff Works dot com written by Julia Layton. Green Stuff is production of I Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, and it it
is produced by Tyler Clain. Four more podcasts. My Heart Radio is at the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.