While more research needs to be done, particularly in observing wild flocks of flamingoes, Anderson said his work, to be detailed in an upcoming issue of the journal Zoo Biology, shows that thermoregulation is a key reason behind the iconic flamingo stance. "So really needs as much heat saving as it can possibly get." "The water just pulls away the body heat really, really quickly," Anderson told LiveScience. The idea that a bird that lives in tropical climates would need to hold in its body heat may seem counter-intuitive, but flamingos spend most of their time in the water, and water causes them to lose body heat more rapidly - just think about the shiver that comes after getting out of a pool, even on a hot summer day. (Overall though, the majority of the flock favored standing on one leg.) ![]() They found that when it was warmer, more birds would stand on two feet, while in cooler weather, more favored the one-legged stance. To put the idea of thermoregulation to the test, the team noted the temperature and weather conditions when the flamingos were resting. Thermoregulation was offered as a reason for the flamingos' unusual posture because it was known that legs and feet were a significant source of heat loss in birds, and keeping one leg up close to the body would conserve heat. The rationale behind the muscle fatigue theory: Standing on one leg would prevent both leg muscles from stiffening and tiring out, so that if a predator came along, the flamingo would be able to get moving faster. It was then that Anderson noticed that no one had even tested why flamingos favor standing on one foot over two.Īmong the untested ideas put forward by scientists for the one-legged posture were that it helped reduce muscle fatigue and that it was important to thermoregulation, or the maintenance of body temperature, Anderson said. The next logical step in his research was to see if they had a preference for their right or left foot while standing and resting. Anderson had studied various behaviors of flamingos, including why they tend to prefer bending their neck to the right and not the left when they lay it on their backs to sleep. Enter Matthew Anderson, a psychologist at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia.
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