The Strangest Fish in The World

 

Why do birds stand on one foot (the answer will amaze you)?

Some may wonder about the secret that makes many birds stand on one foot for long hours, although it may seem very exhausting and difficult. In fact, this topic has been the subject of scientists' research for many years, as some of them attributed this matter to the mechanism used by the bird to regulate its temperature. For some birds, such as the “stilt” and “flamingo” birds, it may require less muscle effort and low fatigue when standing on one foot, compared to the case of the bird when standing on both feet (where standing on both feet is a hard effort that requires muscle balance and great energy without benefit to remember). This also helps the bird to control its temperature in its natural range. These answers may seem possible to the bird in a waking state, but how can the bird sleep for hours in this position while maintaining an ideal body balance?!

The strangest experiment carried out by American biologists "Yong-Hui Chang" from Georgia Tech, "Lina Ting" from Emory University on a dead "flamingo", where the dead bird managed to settle on one foot and attempts to stop it on both were never successful. his feet!!

It's like magic, how can a dead bird keep its balance in this unique way even though most of its body mass is distributed above

Although the researchers attributed the matter to the unique anatomy of the bird's body, which allows standing in this position for long periods, the mechanism by which this happens is still under investigation until now.

How was this discovered?

The journey began with a failed attempt to eavesdrop on the birds and closely monitor them at the Atlanta Zoo. “We wanted to run an experiment where all we do is get close to the birds and poke them a little bit, but the zoo wouldn't let us,” Zhang tells The Atlantic. What was from the two researchers, however, circulated their request to all zoos in the region; The Birmingham Zoo in the US state of Alabama responded to him, sending them two flamingos that had ended their lives by euthanasia.

Then the two researchers began examining the two birds, and here an amazing thing happened. Zhang grabbed one of the corpses and stood it on its leg, which had suddenly taken its usual position, and thus Zhang was able to stop a dead bird on the table balanced on one leg as if it was asleep. "It was a surprisingly special moment," Zhang says. "We weren't expecting him to balance, but he kept perfect balance." What is more strange and surprising than that, is that the two bodies could not stand on two legs.

Instead of using active muscle strength to balance on one leg — as humans do, which makes you feel tired after that yoga class — the flamingos' unique musculoskeletal system helps gravity to be the key to the whole secret, the two scientists said in a study published in Biology Letters.

How does he do it?

The skeleton of flamingos seems to be the key, as flamingos have two major joints on their legs just as humans have. But what you see bending back in the flamingo's leg is not the knee of the leg, but its ankle. As for the bird's knee, it is hidden within the body features of the bird in the fattest part of its body.

When the flamingo is ready to fall asleep, he raises one of his legs and moves his body instinctively, so that his only leg does not remain below his waist, but is completely centered under his center of gravity, (that is, bears the body from the middle and not from the sides like any normal leg) At the same time the bird pulls the other leg up to bend the knee (which is in a different place than most creatures), the flamingo rests on its leg. All joints return to their places.

Speaking to the BBC, Chang told the BBC: "If you look at the bird from the front while it is standing on one leg, you see the foot is directly below the body, which means that the leg is at an internal angle, and this is the position you have to take in order to activate the mechanical stay in balance."

While the flamingo remains perfectly balanced throughout its sleep, it is gravity that does the rest and helps the bird to maintain its position.

Although the mechanism method does not necessarily explain the reason why flamingos sleep on one leg, it indicates that the bird not only relieves muscle fatigue, as it can stand without using all its muscles at all, which indicates that it may be saving energy.

The question is why does he do that?

Matthew Anderson of St. Joseph's University, a flamingo scientist, called the study "an important step forward", but said there were still questions. Speaking to (BBC), he said: "In their study, a step is taken to start answering the question of how flamingos balance comfortably on one leg. But the important thing is that the researchers did not address in their research the place and time of using flamingos for this behavior in question, and therefore the research does not address The truth about the issue of why flamingos rest on one leg. "Providing evidence of a mechanical mechanism that supports or allows this behavior to occur does not necessarily explain why the behavior occurred in the first place," Anderson added.

He also pointed out to The Atlantic that if the main purpose of this position is to save energy only, then in that case "one would expect flamingos to use the one-legged rest position constantly".

For his part, Zhang told Discover magazine that more research is on the way, and added, "We still do not know the anatomical mechanisms used in the one-legged position that allow this behavior, but we can say that it is related to the skeletal anatomy, so we have to image the skeletal anatomy directly in the While the birds practice that behavior - with X-rays, for example - in order to reach our goal, and this will be a direction for ongoing research. before."

So far the researchers are conducting their research at their own expense and from their own effort without funding. "It's a love-driven business," says Chang. "We do science experiments just to want to learn how nature works."

Unresolved theories

Scientists had noticed that flamingos stand on their legs, whether in the wild or in captivity, which indicates that it is completely natural for them to do this behavior and not as a result of stress caused by confinement, according to the website Secret of the Universe.

Many theories have been developed to explain this phenomenon, such as the theory of maintaining temperature by rationalizing the use of one leg or the theory of strengthening blood circulation through the use of one leg to stop, but there is still no confirmation why the flamingo stands on one leg only?