HOW DO FLAMINGOS STAND ON ONE LEG?

HOW DO FLAMINGOS STAND ON ONE LEG? This article at the Atlantic site by Ed Yong (May 23, 2017) reports on a study by Young-Hui Chang and Lena H. Ting in Biology Letters (May 24, 2017) on how flamingos stand on one leg. Much of their research was on flamingo cadavers. A key finding of their study was that “flamingo cadavers could passively support body weight on one leg without any muscle activity”. That is, flamingos can can keep balanced when dead. In contrast, “to maintain our balance, we [humans] constantly use our muscles to make tiny adjustments to our posture” when we stand.

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