The American flamingo ( Phoenicopterus ruber ) is a large species of flamingo that is closely related to Chilean flamingos and flamingos. It was previously thought to be a kind of a larger flamingo, but the treatment is now widely seen (eg by the American Ornithological Association of American and British) as false because of lack of evidence. It is also known as Caribbean flamingo , although it is present in the Galapagos Islands. In Cuba, it's also known as the larger flamingo . This is the only flamingo that naturally inhabits North America.
Video American flamingo
Distribution
American flamingos breed in Galápagos, coastal Colombia, Venezuela and nearby islands, Trinidad and Tobago, along the northern coast of the YucatÃÆ'¡n Peninsula, Cuba, Hispaniola, Bahamas, Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands. The population at GalÃÆ'¡pagos is genetically different from that in the Caribbean, and Galá¡pagos flamingos are significantly smaller, indicating differences in body sexual dimorphism, and smaller eggs.
Preferred habitats are similar to their relatives: salt lagoons, mud plains, and shallow, brackish, coastal or inland lakes. The example of the habitat is the mangrove ecoregion Petenes of YucatÃÆ'¡n.
In Florida
American flamingos are also found in South Florida, which is probably the northernmost region of its distribution. The presence of flamingo eggs in a collection of labeled museums collected from Florida suggests that they may nest there as well. Since the arrival of Europeans, the population began to decline, until the 1900s, where it was considered really extirpated. During the 1950s, birds from the captive populations at Hialeah Park often fled, leading to the conclusion that all modern flamingos in Florida fled, although at least one bird banded as a girl on the YucatÃÆ'¡n Peninsula has been spotted at the Everglades National Park, and the other may be a homeless bird from Cuba. However, a study published in 2018, involving an abandoned flamingo named Conchy found in Key West, shows that the occasional flamingos seen today in Florida are in fact indigenous, some even permanently living in Florida Bay along year. This study also shows that these flamingos may increase in the population and reclaim their lost land. A large group of flamingos are still known to visit Florida from time to time, especially in 2014, when large flocks of over 147 flamingos temporarily live in Stormwater Treatment Area 2, on Lake Okeechobee, with some returning the following year. From a distance, not trained can also confuse it with spoonbill roseate.
Maps American flamingo
Description
The American flamingo is a large swamp bird with reddish pink fur. Like all flamingos, he laid a white egg chalky on mud, between May and August; incubation until hatching takes 28 to 32 days; both parents are bristling young for a period of up to 6 years when they reach sexual maturity. Their life expectancy for 40 years is one of the longest in the birds.
American adult flamingoes are smaller than larger flamingos, but the largest flamingo in America. They measure from 120 to 145 cm (47-57 inches) high. Males weigh an average of 2.8 kg (6.2 lb), while women averaged 2.2 kg (4.9 lb). Most of the fur is pink, giving rise to the previous name of the rosy flamingo and distinguishing adults from a much more pale flamingo. The wing cover is red, and the primary and secondary flying fur is black. The bill was pink and white with a large black tip. Feet fully pink. The call sounded like a horn.
This is one species in which the Treaty on the Conservation of African-Eurasian-Powered Water of the Sea applies.
Married and bonding behavior
The marital and bonding behavior of individual P. rubers has been studied extensively in captivity. American flamingos are usually monogamous when choosing a nest site, and incubating and raising children; however, extra-partner copulation often occurs.
While men usually start dating, women control the process. If interest is reciprocated, a woman walks with a man, and if the man is willing to accept, she walks with it. Both parties perform a synchronized movement until one member cancels the process. For low-intensity courts, men and women walk in unison with their heads raised. In a court of high intensity, men and women walk fast with their heads falling in the wrong eating position. This high intensity dating stops at any point if one of the birds changes and the other does not follow, the head is raised, the movement is stopped, or the movement rate slows. If a female ends up receiving intercourse, she stops walking and presents for men. Long-term couples are not often involved in courtship or group appearances. Couples often stand, sleep, and eat in close proximity.
Dating is most often seen among individuals who frequently switch partners or alternate partners. Spectrum of couples relationship seen. Some birds have long-term couples throughout the year; others form pairs during dating period and nest presence. How long the relationship lasts is influenced by many factors, including adult addition and removal, teenage maturation, and the occurrence of trios and quartets. In most couples, the two individuals usually build and maintain the nest site. In rare cases, one individual performs both tasks. In trios, the dominant couple initiates the nesting process by selecting and then defending the site.
For a trio with one male and two female, female subordinates are tolerated by men, but often quarrel with dominant women. If two females share a nest and both lay eggs, one woman will try to destroy another egg or roll it out of the nest. For a trio with two males and one female, subordinate males are tolerated by both individuals and often become major incubators and babysitters of chicks. For quartets, males and two dominant females take care of the nest, while the male subordinates remain around the periphery, never gaining access to the nest. Less hostility is observed between the dominant female and subordinate in the quartet compared with the trio.
These eggs are attended constantly and equally by parents alternately. The chicks in the nest are attended constantly by alternating parents, until the age of 7-11 days. The most attentive period during the last incubation and brooding is 21-60 hours, either in cases where 'unemployed' parents stay on the same lagoon for feeding, or (when breeding occurs in the food-deficient lagoon), they fly to other lagoons. feeding. The nest relief during incubation takes place mainly in the afternoon, or early morning.
The time to receive food from parents declined from hatching to about 105 days, and the biggest decrease after chicks had left the nest in 7-11 days for the bands to crÃÆ'¨ches. The frequency and duration of feeding by male and female partners did not differ significantly. After the chicks leave the nest, the feed is generally nocturnal.
Adaptations
American flamingoes have adapted to shallow water environments in several ways. It has evolved long legs and large webbed feet to cross and stir the bottom of the water bed to bring up their food source for later retrieval. To feed, he has developed a special beak that is linked downward and displays the marginal lamellae of the upper mandible, and the inner and outer lamellae of the upper and lower jaws. This is customized to filter out different sized foods from water. Depending on the food source in their area, the diet depends on the exact morphology of their beak on what can and can not be filtered out of them. He drowns his head underwater to get his food, and may have his head under water for a long time, which requires him to hold his breath. Factors influencing the choice of American flamingo habitat are ambient temperature, water depth, food source, accessibility of an area, and the presence of vegetation beds in the dining area. If the available food items do not meet the flamingo or temperature requirements do not fit their needs, they move to a better place to eat or more temperate climates.
Osmoregulation
The role of osmoregulation - the maintenance of the right balance of solutes and the concentration of water in the body - is done by a number of bodily functions that work together. In P. ruber , the kidneys, lower gastrointestinal tract, and saline glands work together to maintain homeostasis between ions and liquids. In mammals, the kidneys and bladder are the main organs used in osmoregulation. Birds, however, do not have a bladder and have to compensate for using these three organs.
American flamingoes are saltwater birds that digest foods with high salt content and most drink salt water (with osmolarity usually 1000), hyperosmotic to body cells. Also, although not common, they can drink fresh water at temperatures approaching boiling from geysers. From their high salt diet, they will lose more water and have a larger salt uptake. One of the ways in which their osmoregulation is through the use of salt glands, which are found in their beaks. This salt gland helps to remove excess salt from the body through the nostrils in the flamingo beak. When these birds consume salt, osmolarity increases in blood plasma through the intestine. This causes water to come out of the cell, increasing the extracellular fluid. Both of these changes, in turn, activate the salt bird glands, but before any activity occurs in the salt gland, the kidneys must reabsorb the digested sodium from the small intestine. As seen in other saltwater birds, the excreted fluid has been seen to have a greater osmolarity than salt water, but this varies with salt consumption and body size.
As food and salt water are digested, sodium and water absorption begins through the intestinal wall and into the extracellular fluid. The sodium is then circulated to the kidneys, where the plasma undergoes screening by the renal glomerulus. Although the kidney birds tend to be larger in size, they are inefficient in producing significantly hyposmotic concentrated urine into their blood plasma. This form of secretion will cause dehydration due to water loss. Therefore, sodium and water are reabsorbed into the plasma by the renal tubules. This increase in osmotic plasma levels causes increased extracellular fluid volume, which triggers receptors in both the brain and the heart. These receptors then stimulate the secretion of the salt and sodium glands capable of efficiently leaving the body through the nares while maintaining a high body water level.
Flamingos, like many other seabirds, have a high salt intake, but even the glomular filtration rate (GFR) remains unchanged. It's because of the salt gland; High sodium concentrations are present in the renal filtrate, but can be absorbed almost completely where they are excreted in high concentrations in salt glands. Renal reabsorption can be increased through the output of an antidiuretic hormone called arginine vasotacin (AVT). AVT opens a channel of protein in the kidney collection channel called aquaporins. Aquaporin increases the permeability of membranes to water, and causes less water to move from the blood and to the kidney tubules.
Special osmoregulation cells and transport mechanism
The salt glands used by American flamingos have two segments, the medial and lateral segments. These segments are tubular glands consisting of two cell types. The first is kuboid - small peripheral cells, triangular-shaped cells that have few mitochondria. The second specialized cell is the main cells found along the secretory tubules, and rich in mitochondria. These cells are similar to the mitochondrial-rich cells found in teleost fish.
These cells in the salt gland use some kind of transport mechanism that responds to osmoregulatori load. Sodium-Potassium ATPase works with a Sodium-Chloride cotransporter (also known as NKCC), and a basal potassium channel to secrete salt (NaCl) into a secretory tube. ATPase uses energy from ATP to pump three sodium ions out of the cell and two potassium ions into the cell. Potassium channels allow potassium ions to diffuse out of cells. The cotransporter pumps one sodium, potassium and two chloride ions into the cell. The chloride ion diffuses through the apical membrane into the secretion and sodium tubes following the paracellular route. This is what forms the hyperosmotic solution in the salt gland.
Circulation system
Although there is little investigation of the specific circulatory and cardiovascular systems of phoenicopteridae, they have the hallmark of a poultry circulatory system. As seen in other aves, the flamingo circulation system is closed by maintaining an oxygen-containing and deoxygenated blood separation. This maximizes their efficiency to meet their high metabolic requirements during flight. Because of this need to increase cardiac output, the poultry heart tends to be larger in relation to body mass than is seen in most mammals.
Heart type and features
The poultry circulatory system is driven by a four-chambered myogenic heart contained in a fibrous pericardium sac. The pericardial sac is filled with serous fluid for lubrication. The heart itself is divided into the right and left half, each with atrial and ventricle. The atria and ventricles of each side are separated by the atrioventricular valve which prevents backflow from one chamber to the next during contraction. Being myogenic, the heart rate is guarded by pacemaker cells found in the sinoatrial node, located in the right atrium. The sinoatrial node uses calcium to cause the signal transduction path of depolarization from the atrium through the right and left atrioventricular bundles that communicate contractions to the ventricles. The bird's heart also consists of a muscular arch consisting of a collection of thick muscle layers. Similar to the liver of mammals, the bird's liver consists of the endocardial, myocardial and epicardial layers. The atrium wall tends to be thinner than the ventricular wall, due to intense ventricular contractions used to pump oxygenated blood throughout the body.
Organization of the circulatory system
Similar to atria, the arteries are composed of thick elastic muscles to withstand the pressure of the ventricular constriction, and become more rigid as they move away from the heart. Blood moves through an artery, which undergoes vasoconstriction, and becomes an arterioles that act as a transport system to distribute oxygen primarily as well as nutrients to all body tissues. When arterioles move away from the heart and into individual organs and tissues, they are further divided to increase surface area and slow down blood flow. Traveling through the blood of the arterioles moves into capillaries where gas exchange can occur. The capillaries are arranged into the capillary layer in the tissue, this is where the oxygenated blood exchange for carbon dioxide wastes. In capillary blood flow, the blood flow is slowed to allow oxygen diffusion into the tissues. After the blood becomes deoxygenated, it travels through the venules and then the veins and back to the heart. Veins, unlike arteries, are thin and rigid because they do not have to withstand extreme pressure. When blood flows through the venule into the vein, a blockage called vasodilation takes blood back to the heart. After the blood reaches the heart, it moves first into the right atrium, then the left ventricle is pumped through the lungs to further exchange gas from carbon dioxide waste for oxygen. Oxygenated blood then flows from the lungs through the left atrium to the left ventricle where it is pumped out into the body. With regards to thermoregulation, American flamingoes have very vascularized legs that use the opposite exchange system over there feet and feet. This thermoregulation method maintains a constant gradient between the adjacent vein and artery to retain heat within the nucleus and minimize loss or increase of heat in the extremities. The heat loss is minimized during wading in cold water, while the increase in heat is minimized in hot temperatures during rest and flight.
The physical and chemical properties of pumping blood
The heart of a bird is generally larger than the heart of a mammal when compared with body mass. This adaptation allows more blood to be pumped to meet the high metabolic needs associated with aviation. Birds, like flamingos, have a very efficient system for spreading oxygen into the blood; birds have a surface area ten times larger than the volume of mammals. As a result, birds have more blood in their capillaries per unit of lung volume than mammals. The heart of four American Flamingo chambers is myogenic, meaning that all muscle and fiber cells have the ability to contract rhythmically. The contraction rhythm is controlled by a speed-making cell that has a lower threshold for depolarization. The electrical depolarization wave that starts here is what physically starts a heart contraction and starts pumping blood. Pumping blood creates variations in blood pressure and as a result, creates different blood vessel thicknesses. LaPlace's law can be used to explain why relatively thick arteries and thin veins.
Blood composition
It is widely estimated that poultry blood has special properties associated with highly efficient extraction and oxygen transport compared with mammalian blood. This is of course not true; there is no real difference in blood efficiency, and both mammals and birds use the hemoglobin molecule as the primary oxygen carrier with little or no difference in oxygen-carrying capacity. Breeding and age have been shown to have an effect on the composition of American flamingo blood. The decline in white blood cell count was dominated by age in both captive and free live flamingos, but flamingo captivity showed higher white blood cell counts than the free live flamingos. One exception occurs in the flamingos of free living with regard to the number of white blood cells. The number of eosinophils in free birds is higher because these cells are those against the parasite where birds live freely may have more contacts than captives. Prisoners show a higher number of hematocrit and red blood cells than free-living flamingos, and an increase in blood hemoglobin is seen with age. Increased hemoglobin will correspond to an increase in metabolic requirements of adults. The smaller average cellular volumes recorded in free live flamingos coupled with the same average hemoglobin content between living captive flamingos and free can show different oxygen diffusion characteristics between the two groups. Plasma chemistry is still relatively stable with age but lower values ​​of protein, uric acid, cholesterol, triglycerides, and phospholipids are seen in free live flamingos. This trend can be attributed to deficiencies and variance in food intake in free live flamingos.
Blood composition and osmoregulation
Bird erythrocytes (red blood cells) have been shown to contain about ten times the amount of taurine (amino acids) as mammalian erythrocytes. Taurine has a large list of physiological functions; but in birds, this can have an important influence on osmoregulation. This helps the movement of ions in erythrocytes by altering the permeability of the membrane and regulating osmotic pressure within the cell. The regulation of osmotic pressure is achieved by the inflow or efflux taurine relative to changes in blood osmolarity. In a hypotonic environment, cells will swell and eventually shrink; This depreciation is due to the depletion of taurine. This process also works in the opposite way in a hypertonic environment. In hypertonic environment cells tend to shrink and then enlarge; This enlargement is caused by the inclusion of taurine, effectively changing the osmotic pressure. This adaptation allows flamingos to adjust salinity differences.
Respiratory system
Relatively little research focuses on the flamingo respiratory system, but little or no difference from the standard bird anatomy design has occurred in their evolutionary history. However, some physiological differences do occur in flamingos and structurally similar species.
The respiratory system is not only important for efficient gas exchange, but for thermoregulation and vocalization. Thermoregulation is important for flamingos because they generally live in warm habitats and their luxurious fur boosts body temperature. Heat loss is achieved through thermal polypnea (panting), which is an increase in respiratory rate. It has been seen that the medulla, hypothalamus and midbrain are involved in panting control, as well as through the Hering-Breuer reflex that uses stretch receptors in the lungs, and the vagus nerve. The effects of panting are accelerated by a process called gular fluttering; quickly flap the membrane in the throat that is synchronized with the thorax movement. Both of these mechanisms increase the loss of heat that evaporates, allowing birds to push out warm air and water from the body. Increased respiratory rate will usually cause respiratory alkalosis because carbon dioxide levels rapidly decrease in the body, but the flamingo is able to pass through this, most likely through a shunt mechanism, allowing it to maintain a sustained partial carbon dioxide pressure. blood. Since the integument of poultry is not equipped with sweat glands, cutaneous cooling is minimal. Because the flamingo respiratory system is divided by several functions, breathing should be controlled to prevent hypoxia.
For flamingos, having a long neck means adapting to a very long trachea. Trachea is an important area of ​​the respiratory tract; In addition to directing air in and out of the lungs, it has the largest volume of dead space in the channel. The dead space in avians is about 4.5 times higher in mammals of similar size. In particular, flamingos have tracheas that are longer than the length of the body with 330 cartilage rings. As a result, they have twice as many dead spaces as higher than other birds of the same size. To compensate for the extension, they usually breathe in deep and slow patterns.
One hypothesis for the adaptation of birds to respiratory alkalosis is the tracheal coiling. The tracheal coiling is a long extension of the trachea and can often wrap the body of a bird. When confronted with heat loads, birds often use thermal skeleton and this adaptation of tracheal circles allows non-exchangeable surface ventilation that can allow birds to avoid respiratory alkalosis. Flamingos use a "flushout" ventilation pattern in which deeper breaths are basically mingled with shallow to remove carbon dioxide and avoid alkalosis. An increase in the length of the trachea provides a greater ability for breathing evaporation and cools without hyperventilation.
Thermoregulation
Further reading: Thermoregulation in birds and mammals
Thermoregulation is a matter of maintaining a consistent body temperature regardless of ambient temperature. Flamingos requires both an efficient method of heat retention and discharge. Although American flamingos are located primarily near the equator where there is relatively little fluctuation in temperature, variations in seasonal and circadian temperatures must be taken into account.
Like all animals, flamingos maintain a relatively constant basal metabolic rate (BMR); metabolic rate of animals in the thermoneutral zone (TNZ) at rest. BMR is a static rate that changes depending on factors such as time of day or seasonal activity. Like most birds, basic physiological adaptations control both heat loss in warm conditions and heat retention in cold conditions. Using the opposite blood flow system, heat is more efficiently recycled through the body than lost through extremities such as feet and feet.
Living in the equatorial region of the world, American flamingoes have little variation in seasonal temperature changes. However, as a homeothermic endotherm it is still faced with the challenge of maintaining a constant body temperature while being exposed to both daylight (light period) and night (dark period) ambient temperature. Phoenicopterus ruber has evolved a number of thermoregulation mechanisms to keep itself cool during periods of light and warm during dark periods without spending too much energy. American flamingos have been observed in niche temperatures between 17.8-35.2 ° C (64.0-95.4 ° F). To prevent water loss through evaporation when elevated flamingo temperatures will use hyperthermia as a steam removal method that keeps its body temperature between 40-42 ° C (104-108 ° F). This allows heat to leave the body by moving from a high body temperature area to an area with a lower environmental temperature. Flamingos can also use evaporative heat loss methods such as, evaporative heat loss of the skin and loss of evaporative breathing heat. During skin heat loss,
One of the most characteristic attributes of P. ruber is the unipedal stance, or the tendency to stand on one foot. While the purpose of this iconic posture remains ultimately unanswered, strong evidence supports its function in regulating body temperature. Like most birds, the greatest amount of heat is lost through the feet and feet; having long legs can be a big disadvantage when the temperature drops and the most important heat retention. By holding one foot above the ventral surface of the body, the flamingo lowers the surface area where heat comes out of the body. In addition, it has been observed that during periods of rising temperatures such as midday, flamingos will stand on both legs. Holding a bipedal position doubles the amount of heat lost from the foot and regulates further body temperature.
Migration
Like other flamingo species, American flamingos will migrate short distances to ensure that they get enough food or because their current habitat has been disrupted in some way. One of the observed habitat disturbances causing flamingoes to leave their feeding place is the high water level. This condition makes it difficult for Phoenicopterus ruber to cross, blocking their ability to access food. Flamingos will then leave their dining grounds to find alternative food sources. While the flight is not during other migratory birds, flamingos still fly for days without a meal.
Metabolism
For most flamingos are not so different from other saltwater birds. They will fast when migrating to a new habitat or chicks may not receive food every day depending on the availability of food.
References
Further reading
- Studer-Thiersch, A. (1975). Grzimek, B., ed. Die Flamingos . Grzimeks Tierleben . 7/1 VÃÆ'¶gel DTV (1980). MÃÆ'¼nchen, nach Kindler Verlag AG Zurich 1975-1977. pp.Ã, 239-245.
- Comin, Francisco A.; Herrera-Silveira, Jorge A.; Ramirez-Ramirez, Javier, eds. (2000). Limnology and Water Birds: Monitoring, Modeling and Management . Merida: Universidad Autonoma del Yucatan.
External links
- 3D computer tomography animation showing the anatomy of the Caribbean Flamingo head
- The Greater Flamingo Species Text in South African Atlas of Birds.
- Fact sheets of BirdLife species for Phoenicopterus ruber
- "Phoenicopterus ruber". Avibase .
- "Greater Flamingo media". Bird Bird Collection .
- American flamingo photo gallery at VIREO (Drexel University)
- Account of American flamingo species at NeotropicalBirds (Cornell University)
- Interactive range map Phoenicopterus ruber on the IUCN Red List map
- American flamingo audio recordings at Xeno-canto.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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