Picture: Baby flamingos.
Researchers are not sure why
flamingos became such deeply gregarious birds. Strength in
numbers? Patchily distributed habitats that encourage population concentration?
Whatever the reason, flamingos
have taken social life to new heights. In breeding displays that are part
Riverdance, part Caucus race with Dodo , male and female flamingos march,
head-flag, fake preen and wing-wag as one.
Their synchronised movements are amazing!
The choreographed spectacle serves
multiple aims. By comparing and contrasting, the birds can efficiently identify
a suitable mate, and preliminary evidence suggests that they are drawn to mates
whose moves most closely mirror theirs.
Moreover, by stepping together,
the flamingos ensure that their reproductive cycles will likewise be synched.
Each pair will lay a single egg and rear a single chick, and scientists have
seen that survival rates among the young are highest when they’re surrounded by
chicks like them, born the very same day.
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