![]() In a nutshell, the higher the degree of difficulty, the more desirable the flamingo mate. Then they tracked the dancers to see who succeeded in producing chicks. In a sort of Dancing With The Stars meets First Dates move, researches crunched those numbers to come up with a “sexual display complexity (SDC)” score for each bird. They found the average courtship dance sequence lasts five minutes, the number of “strike a pose” postures ranged between two and eight, and the transitions between were anything between two and 17. ðġ of ð things we learnt from #PlanetEarth2 ð /X7gvZ8eC0Zâ BBC Three November 14, 2016 It’s spectacular and sometimes hilarious to watch, as showcased in a recent instalment of David Attenborough’s Planet Earth II, in which “flamingo ballet” seduction scenes went nuts on the internet.įlamingos have a WEIRD mating ritual. Like those early high school discos, it starts with the blokes rushing around in a group, before bravado kicks in, and those with the most talent start showing off to stand out from the crowd - preening, wing-spreading, dramatically dipping heads and beaks and shaking their butts in the air like they just don’t care, all in the hope a female will notice. Serial monogamists, to a point - they pair up for a year, agree to a mutual separation, then head out each mating season to find a new mate - flamingos invest annually in the dance of love. And it’s not just the big moves, it’s the ability to string them together that also matters. Turns out that’s even more important in the flamingo world, where dinner and conversation don’t matter: it’s your dance moves that get the chicks.Ī recent study has revealed flamingos with the biggest repertoire are the most successful in finding a mate. ![]() WE’VE all seen that dude on the dancefloor - the one with the best moves, making it look easy. ![]() Most adults find new mates each year, Amat said.įollow Joseph Castro on Twitter. Interestingly, flamingos are generally monogamous, with mating pairs staying true to their partners and cooperatively building nests and incubating eggs - for that single season, at least. She will then stop walking, lower her head and spread her wings, inviting her mate to briefly mount her from behind and pass sperm from his cloaca (waste and reproductive orifice) to hers. Whatever the case, when a female is ready to mate, she will walk away from the dancing group and her chosen male will follow close behind. After their chicks hatch, the birds quickly lose the bright colors of their wings because they've stopped applying their make-up, the team reasoned. These preen oils, Amat's team found, are rich in carotenoids, and the flamingos ramp-up their oil-applying behavior during the mating season. ![]() And like all birds, their tails contain glands that produce oil that they spread onto their wings with their beaks. In fact, in a study published in 2011 in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, Amat and his colleagues found that flamingos apply "make-up" around breeding time to attract mates.įlamingos get the vibrant colors of their feathers from pigmented compounds called carotenoids, which they co-opt from the algae and small invertebrates they eat. "As far as I know, mate choice has not been studied in detail in any flamingo species," Amat said, adding that plumage color is likely a factor that contributes to mate choice. It's not clear how the flamingos choose their mates, or even if a flamingo's dance performance matters. Other dance moves include the "twist-preen" (head twisted beneath a wing), the "wing-leg stretch" (outstretched leg and wing on one side of the body) and "marching" (quick, synchronized steps performed while clustered together and standing erect).
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