Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren vogal Bomb. Here in a large, shallow body of water,
Speaker 1: hundreds of flamingos might congregate like an avian water ballet team,
Speaker 1: all preening their pink feathers, resting in the sun, and
Speaker 1: standing on one leg for hours at a time. Flamingos
Speaker 1: even sleep that way. It's a puzzle to science why
Speaker 1: exactly flamingos stand on one leg so regularly, but there
Speaker 1: are lots of theories on the subject. It's an impressive
Speaker 1: ability considering that flamingo's legs are longer than their bodies
Speaker 1: and most of their weight is oriented horizontally. Humans are
Speaker 1: oriented vertically, with almost all of our weight in line
Speaker 1: with our center of gravity. It really should be easier
Speaker 1: for humans to stand on one leg than four flamingos,
Speaker 1: but most of us have trouble standing on one leg
Speaker 1: for ten seconds blood alone four hours, like flamingos too.
Speaker 1: Most large waiting birds have the ability to stand on
Speaker 1: one leg, and flamingos are one of the biggest waiting
Speaker 1: birds out there. They range from about fifty inches tall
Speaker 1: that's about but they don't weigh much, just about five
Speaker 1: to eight pounds that's two to three and a half kilos.
Speaker 1: Combine their height with their coloring, and flamingos are one
Speaker 1: of the most recognizable birds in the world. It's startling
Speaker 1: to see a large group of pink, red or vermillion
Speaker 1: birds standing one legged or otherwise in a shallow pond.
Speaker 1: The color, of course, comes from the food that they eat,
Speaker 1: including shrimp, which is full of carotenoid pigments, the same
Speaker 1: thing that makes carrots orange. Flamingos are almost always in groups,
Speaker 1: anywhere from a few birds to a few hundred or
Speaker 1: even a few thousand, and they live on every continent
Speaker 1: except Australia and at Arctica. They're very social, a sleeping
Speaker 1: preening their feathers and eating together. To eat, flamingos fish
Speaker 1: sort of. They stick their heads in the water upside
Speaker 1: down and suck mud and water in through the front
Speaker 1: of their beak. The up in the bottom of the
Speaker 1: beak have bristles that intertwine when they meet, forming a
Speaker 1: comb like filtering mechanism. The water and mud flow through,
Speaker 1: getting pumped out of the sides of the beak. What's
Speaker 1: left is the flamingos food, usually algae and small crustaceans.
Speaker 1: They stand on both legs to eat, but on one
Speaker 1: leg to sleep. It seems like sleeping would require both
Speaker 1: legs on the ground for balance since the animal is unconscious.
Speaker 1: So why do flamingos do it? Here are a few theories. Okay,
Speaker 1: if you stood in the water all day, your skin
Speaker 1: would prune up. Well, waiting birds have the same problem,
Speaker 1: and this is where one of the theories comes from.
Speaker 1: Maybe flamingos stand on one leg to dry their other off.
Speaker 1: Since flamingoes alternate which foot they've got in the water,
Speaker 1: this theory does seem possible, but it's not super popular.
Speaker 1: Some experts think that the one leg balancing act might
Speaker 1: have to do with the flamingos brain. Many animals, including
Speaker 1: dolphins and ducks, only turn off one side of their
Speaker 1: brain at a time when they sleep, and ducks, along
Speaker 1: with herons, storks, and geese, have also been known to
Speaker 1: stand on one leg for long periods of time. If
Speaker 1: flamingoes keep half their brain awake while they sleep, that
Speaker 1: could explain why they sleep on one leg. The leg
Speaker 1: controlled by the side of the brain that's awake, stays
Speaker 1: on the ground to maintain balance while the other leg
Speaker 1: and foot get to rest up for a while. The
Speaker 1: most common theories, though, relate to hunting and energy conservation.
Speaker 1: The sense of flamingos legs are so long and make
Speaker 1: up the majority of the bird's height, it takes a
Speaker 1: lot of energy to pump blood through both legs. That's
Speaker 1: a big strain on the heart. It's possible that pulling
Speaker 1: up one leg to rest and tucking it up into
Speaker 1: the body allows the heart to more easily pump blood
Speaker 1: through the body, since only one leg is fully extended.
Speaker 1: At the same time, this could conserve body heat. It's
Speaker 1: like wrapping your arms around your torso to stay warm.
Speaker 1: The more compact you make your body, the easier it
Speaker 1: is to warm up. This is an imperfect theory, though,
Speaker 1: since flamingoes will stand on leg in both cold and
Speaker 1: hot weather. There are many scientists who think flamingos keep
Speaker 1: just one leg in the water in order to better
Speaker 1: camouflage themselves. A lagoon has lots of long, thin objects
Speaker 1: in it, including reeds and small trees. A flamingo on
Speaker 1: one leg could resemble a tree with a thin trunk,
Speaker 1: especially when seen from inside the water, so a flamingoes
Speaker 1: underwater prey might think that it's a safe place to swim.
Speaker 1: This theory would make more sense, though, if the flamingos
Speaker 1: prey were a bit more site driven. So nobody is
Speaker 1: sure exactly why flamingoes do this, but there is an
Speaker 1: interesting anatomical mechanism that may help explain how a flamingoes
Speaker 1: ankle is where you would expect the knee to be
Speaker 1: near the middle of the leg, the knee is so
Speaker 1: far up in the leg that's usually hidden by the body,
Speaker 1: and that ankle has something that a human ankle doesn't.
Speaker 1: The joint actually snaps shut to literally lock it in place,
Speaker 1: and some scientists think that this locking chanism may be
Speaker 1: the key to a flamingo's incredible balancing act. Today's episode
Speaker 1: is based on the article why does Flamingo stand on
Speaker 1: one leg? On how stuff Works dot com written by
Speaker 1: Julia Layton. Green Stuff is production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, and it it
Speaker 1: is produced by Tyler Clain. Four more podcasts. My Heart
Speaker 1: Radio is at the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.