flamingos are the only animal that can drink almost boiling water!
most flamingos live near bodies of water with high salt concentrations, and sometimes the only source of fresh water for them are boiling geysers. so, in order to survive, they had to adapt to be able to drink that nearly boiling water. in addition to this, flamingos can stand in this hot water without getting burns.
the adaptation to being cool with boiling water also makes sense in the competition aspect… if you can stand in a place others cannot.. that’s YOUR spot! and all the little bugs and fish that others cannot get to are allllll yours. mmmm, boiled bugs.
flamingos are full of surprises and body-oddity. they secrete salt through specialized glands in their nose (nature’s the saltiest boogers!), their knees bend opposite ours, AND their pink color is not due to the color of their feathers but rather their shrimp diet! what wonderful weirdos!
in early AI image generation days (ya know- before we were worried about midjourney stealing artists’ jobs lol), my husband and I inputted “flamingo mosh pit”
I already feel nostalgia for those early AI image generator days. I loved the dreamy quality you could get. it was such a fun tool to make absurd imagery…
speaking of dreamy imagery and flamingos… here’s a real photo of flamingos taking shelter from a hurricane in the men’s bathroom at a Miami zoo in 1998. they look ready to fight that crew they see in the mirror!
