![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() A similar arrangement, called a stay apparatus, is found in horses for the same purpose, and bat fingers contain a similar lock that helps them stay hanging for long periods of time. Essentially, a standing flamingo is in a position similar to a human doing a squat! The researchers think that the bird’s bodyweight generates passive joint moments around the hip and knee, keeping the joints into a fixed position in order to support the weight of their body. This is remarkable, because flamingos’ femurs (the large bone in our thighs) are horizontal. This only happens when the bird’s foot is right underneath its body, not when it’s off center (like it is when standing on two legs). They found that the leg remained straight even after rotating it more than 45 degrees in each direction. Using dead flamingos (that can’t generate active muscle forces), the researchers clamped one leg and tilted the cadavers forward and backward (video). Researchers Young-Hui Chang at Georgia Tech and Lena Ting at Emory investigated this question in a recent paper by examining the muscle forces required to support body weight and maintain balance in flamingos standing on one leg. But does that benefit outweigh the cost of maintaining balance on a single leg? Researchers think that this is beneficial because it allows them to switch legs when one gets tired. This requires that single leg to support the entire weight of the animal and maintain balance. Flamingos are especially perplexing because they often sleep on only one leg. ![]()
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