Study found that flamingos also "put on makeup"

According to the American science news website reported on October 26, the great flamingo apparently does not like the appearance of its neck feathers faded after being exposed to the sun.

Scientists have known that this pair of long-legged birds improve their appearance by applying a slurry secreted by glands near their tails to their neck. But researchers report in the October issue of the journal Ecology and Evolution that flamingos don't just enhance their original colors, they also combat the bleaching effects of sunlight on feather colors. The analysis showed that feathers coated with thicker slurry would be longer-lasting than feathers coated with thinner slurry.

Flamingos' feathers help them fly, keep their bodies dry, and courtship. The red color of these feathers comes from carotenoids found in brine brown shrimp and algae that flamingos have long eaten. Carotenoids are potent molecules that make up many natural pigments.

The report also said that when flamingos use their mouths to tidy up their feathers, their love for their "heads" is somewhat similar to the way humans tend to hair and clean up dirt and parasites on their heads. Like some people, they dye their feathers with a slurry.

But the sun's ultraviolet radiation breaks down carotenoids. That led Maria Cecilia Chiale, a biologist at the National University of La Plata in Argentina, to wonder if flamingos would lose the color on their feathers if they hadn't been constantly dyed with slurry.

Chiarè and her collaborators collected dozens of neck feathers from French flamingos that died in a cold snap. The research team scanned the feathers and analyzed their color. She found that feathers with higher carotenoid concentrations retained color for longer. This suggests that flamingos applied more slurry to these feathers, making them more resistant to the effects of fading than feathers coated with less slurry.

This study shows that throughout the estrus period, when flamingos are ready to mate, they actively commit themselves to keeping their necks red; if not, they will have white feathers.

However, all of this care to prevent feathers from fading doesn't last forever. Once they have a mate and successfully hatched the birds, Chiaray said, the flamingos put away their stains, at least until the next year's mating season. The concentration of carotenoids in the slurry decreases significantly, and the frequency with which flamingos use slurry to dye their feathers is greatly reduced.

Chiaré said: "They don't need makeup when raising their children. "They need to devote their energy to caring for their young birds.

Source: Reference News Network