Flamingos why one leg

They started watching the flocks to try to figure out if flamingos had a particular right or left preference when craning their necks to rest their heads on their backs. The scientists thought that the preference might extend to which leg they stand on. Flamingos spend a lot of time partially immersed as they live, feed and breed in lagoons or other large bodies of shallow water. She notes that some flamingos are found high in the Andes, braving blowing snow and freezing temperatures.

According to Anderson, flamingos pull one leg up close to their body to conserve heat that might otherwise be lost while standing in cold water—not just in the Andes, but in the tropics, too, where even a slight drop in water temperature could mean big losses, due to the length of a flamingo leg. Instead, they said, it appears that flamingos share a primitive feature also seen in whales and dolphins: the ability to shut down half the brain while sleeping.

That keeps the underwater animals from drowning while asleep. And, standing on one leg would keep them from falling over and drowning, because flamingos—unlike ducks, for instance—have a build that lets them easily stand on one leg without losing their balance or having to harshly angle their knee or ankle joints.

My opinion on this article is that it is very interesting and i have always been interested in flamingos. One reason flamingos stand on one leg is because,"When the temperatures are on the colder side. I always wondered why flamingos do that, which is cool now i know.

One reason that flamingos stand on one leg is because it helps them maintain there body heat when the weather is cold or the water is cold so it would definately would make sense to do so as it states in paragraphfour and five "What they found is that flamingos tend to do a lot more one-legged lounging when they are standing in water.

Flamingos stand on one leg because of the water temperature. The flamingos have to maintain their body temperature by keeping one leg in the water and still staying balanced. This article is interesting because i think flamingos are fascinating animals and they are one of my favorite animals. One reason flamingos stand on one leg is to keep warm. With one leg tucked in and the other also being used the body stays warm.

This article explained a myth that I didn't know about so it was enjoyable. I would like to see why owls can turn their heads so far. One reason that flamingos stand on one leg is to maintain body temperature. Although it sounds counter-intuitive, it may also be that it takes less effort for flamingos to stand on one leg than on two. In , a study of flamingo cadavers found that they can passively support their body weight on one leg without any muscle activity, but they cannot maintain balance holding a two-legged pose.

The researchers also found that live flamingos in a zoo sway less when they stand on one leg. This system enables horses to stay standing with almost no muscular effort, even while asleep. It has been suggested that standing on one leg reduces muscle fatigue for flamingos, or enables them to move more quickly if they suddenly have to escape a predator.