Scientists have figured out why flamingos are such weird eaters : NPR

Flamingos are filter feeders that reside off shrimp, algae and different nibbles in wetlands world wide.

Serhat Cetinkaya/Anadolu by way of Getty Pictures

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Serhat Cetinkaya/Anadolu by way of Getty Pictures

Flamingos look sleek, however when it is time to eat, they’re very foolish.

“All of their feeding habits is so bizarre,” says Steven Whitfield, the director of terrestrial and wetlands conservation on the Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans, La.

The lanky birds feed on shrimp and algae in briny swamps and marshes world wide. To seize a chew, they stick their heads underwater and open and shut their invoice quickly, as if chattering. Then they stomp their ft and wobble round within the mud, bobbing their heads up and down as they go.

It isn’t instantly obvious why the long-lasting pink birds would take this absurd strategy to getting a meal. They’re filter feeders, “in order that they’re sort of just like the chook model of an oyster,” Whitfield says. They pressure water by way of their L-shaped beaks, trapping shrimp, algae, seeds and anything they discover tasty.

However with their heads virtually between their legs, their payments seem like the other way up and going through the improper option to scoop up the shrimp and algae in entrance of them.

“Flamingos are doing every little thing improper, it looks like,” says Saad Bhamla, a biophysicist at Georgia Tech College who research how animals use physics to unravel issues. Bhamla’s then-student, Victor Ortega-Jiménez, first observed the odd feeding habits throughout a day trip for the laboratory on the Atlanta Zoo a couple of years again. Ortega-Jiménez wished to search out out what was happening.

“All we want is a hook, an commentary, and it is off to the races,” Bhamla says.

After all, flamingos know completely effectively what they’re doing, and now so does Bhamla’s group. Writing in this week’s issue of the journal Proceedings of the Nationwide Academy of Sciences, the staff reveals that your entire flamingo feeding course of is definitely a tour-de-force in fluid dynamics.

The chook is creating vortices within the water with virtually each transfer. Take, for instance, the bobbing of its head. The form of its invoice creates a tiny twister because it pulls out of the water. The swirling stirs up prey and traps it lengthy sufficient for the chook to duck again in and scoop it up. Identical goes for the chattering, which pulls meals up in direction of its beak.

Then there’s the unusual stomping of their ft. The research finds that flamingos’ webbed toes create a pair of vortices that push meals in direction of their payments. That is why it is sensible to have the top going through the ft as an alternative of no matter is in entrance of them.

“What they’re principally doing is enjoying with fluid dynamics — utilizing the beak, utilizing their legs, utilizing their heads and necks,” Bhamla says.

Finally, Bhamla says, flamingos could have some extra to show people. He works with chemists who, amongst different issues, wish to discover ways to higher filter water by way of membranes. These membranes often clog up with particles related in dimension to what the flamingos filter for his or her meals. So it appears attainable that among the vortex-inducing methods of flamingos could possibly be tailored to assist hold the filters clear.

Now, “we’re principally utilizing flamingo-inspired intelligent methods” to try to provide you with options, he says.

Whitfield, who was not affiliated with the work, says that it reveals the wonderful thing about science — there are all the time mysteries ready to be solved.

“And with birds as weird as flamingos,” he provides, “there’s most likely greater than common.”