Once Upon A Time There Was A Girl Who Really Loved Dogs And Flamingos Shirt
Maintaining their fiery hue is a difficult business, and it turns out that flamingos use cosmetic enhancements. Researchers have long known that they derive their baseline pink-orange color from carotenoid pigments in the crustaceans and algae on which they feed. Put flamingos on a carotenoid-free meal plan, and their feathers will stay white.ADVERTISEMENTYet as a team led by Juan Amat of the Doñana Biological Station in Seville, Spain, reported this year in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, baseline blush may not be enough for a flamingo in full courtship swagger.Studying the greater flamingo, the researchers found that males and females alike brighten the underlying tint of their feathers through regular applications of what the scientists call makeup: driblets of carotenoid pigments secreted by the preening gland at the flamingo’s rear end. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I want to make sure I don’t own any lipstick shades called Flamingo.
Once Upon A Time There Was A Girl Who Really Loved Dogs And Flamingos Shirt
Flamingos are an ancient group of birds, with distinctly flamingolike fossils dating back at least 50 million years. The group is not a diverse one, however, and today there are only five or six species, depending on who’s doing the counting and classifying.Flamingos are found patchily throughout the world, wherever there are shallow salt pans, brackish waters or lagoons to exploit. Outfitted with specialized salt glands that allow them to excrete excess salt they ingest, “flamingos can take advantage of habitats that not many other animals can,” Dr. Arengo said.The birds may seem to epitomize the tropics, but they also live in the Andes, 15,000 feet above sea level, where they rest on lakes that freeze around them overnight.“You’ll see them sitting there like snowballs, frozen on ice,” Dr. Arengo said. “And as the temperature warms up, they thaw out, fluff themselves up and go about their business.”