![]() He explained: “We, therefore, propose the hypothesis that rather than to reduce muscle fatigue or heat loss, flamingoes stand on one leg to reduce muscular energy expenditure. Other benefits, such as reduced heat loss, may not be as important for non aquatic and tropical birds that also stand on one leg. He added: “Taken together, our results highlight the possibility flamingoes stand for long durations on one leg without exacting high muscular forces and, thus, little energetic expenditure.”ĭr Chang, whose findings are published in Biology Letters, said flamingoes mainly use their legs for prolonged standing, rather than moving, so it seems using just one should be “energetically efficient.” Trials included visibly active (eyes-open) and quiescent (eyes-closed) birds standing on one and two legs.ĭr Chang said: “We discovered live flamingoes standing on one leg have markedly reduced body sway during quiescent versus alert behaviours.” His team also analysed video recordings of eight juvenile Chilean flamingoes taken at Zoo Atlanta, Georgia, as they stood on a force plate. “By contrast, the cadaveric flamingo could not be stably held in a two-legged pose, suggesting a greater necessity for active muscle force to stabilise two-legged versus one-legged postures.” Others birds, such as herons, storks, ducks and many others also often stand on a single leg in water, perhaps for the same reasons as flamingoes.ĭr Chang said: “First, we demonstrated flamingo cadavers could passively support body weight on one leg without any muscle activity while adopting a stable, unchanging, joint posture resembling that seen in live flamingoes. Standing in flamingoes to explore both musculoskeletal anatomy and behaviour.” He said: “To our knowledge, this is the first functional investigation of one legged Previous research has suggested flamingoes stand on one leg to reduce muscle fatigue or heat loss, but Dr Chang believes this is wrong. “We believe reducing the muscular force of standing could offer a more general explanation of why many bird species across many habitats stand and even sleep on one leg.” “Here, we explain how flamingoes use their body’s biomechanics to support their weight on one leg with little muscular effort and why standing on one leg may actually be energetically favourable to standing on two legs. They tilted the body forwards and backwards in the sagittal plane, which divides the body into left and right, while tracking limb segment markers to calculate knee and hip joint angles.ĭr Chang said: “With the bulk of its mass sitting half a metre above the ground on a single, slender leg, the one legged stance of flamingoes captures the imagination and epitomises a behaviour that is unique to birds. They warned that one limitation of the study was the fact that all participants were white Brazilians.Īs a result, “the findings might not be more widely applicable to other ethnicities and nations”.His team acquired two fresh-frozen adult Caribbean flamingo cadavers from Birmingham Zoo, Alabama, and, after thawing them, used bone clamps to emulate its one-legged stance. The researchers noted that people who failed the test generally had poorer health – with a higher proportion of obesity, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and unhealthy blood fat profiles. The study found that 17.5% of those that failed the test had died compared to just 4.5% among those that passed it - an absolute difference of just under 13%. While there were no temporal trends or differences in the causes of the deaths, the proportion of deaths was significantly higher among those that failed the balance test. In that time, 123 people - 7% of the total - died: The participants were then monitored for an average period of seven years. In all, around one-in-five were unable to complete the test – with people less likely to be able to do it, the older they were. ![]() They were permitted up to three attempts on either foot. To standardise the test, participants were asked to keep their arms by their sides and place their free foot against on the back of the opposite lover leg. The researchers first took various medical details form all participants and then asked them to stand on one leg for ten seconds without support. While the study was observational and did not suggest that the ability to stand on one leg was directly responsible for the increased cause of death, its findings were striking. Ciara and Shane tested it out in studio this morning. ![]() The researchers said the study shows that a flamingo-style balance test should be included in mid-life health check-ups.Ĭan you do the Flamingo? The ability to stand on one leg may say a lot about how long you are likely to live. ![]()
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