Meeting Abstract
Moving between aquatic and terrestrial habitats produces several challenges for locomotion, as animals must accommodate changes in buoyancy, drag, and substrate. Many species change locomotor behavior as they move between habitats, shifting from walking on land to swimming through water. Others, however, do not change locomotor mode and, instead, use walking in both habitats. Species such as turtles and salamanders walk while fully submerged underwater, showing locomotor patterns affected by differences in buoyancy between habitats. However, diverse species engage in wading behaviors, in which the limbs move through the water but the body is partially out of the water. We evaluated how locomotor kinematics are impacted by changes in water depth during wading by filming Chilean Flamingos (Phoenicopterus chilensis) at the Greenville Zoo (SC). We predicted that birds will take shorter steps in water than on land and, potentially, take the highest steps at intermediate depths. We also predicted that the head and neck would adopt a position closer to the center of mass during shorter steps in water, and that stride velocity would be slower in water than on land. Preliminary analyses suggest that strides are slower in shallow and deep water than on land, though head position and stride length were not affected by water depth. Our results suggest that flamingos adjust limb movements as they wade through deeper water, shifting from stepping over and into shallow water, to dragging the leg through deeper water when stepping above the surface becomes intractable. These data shed light on potential mechanisms that long-legged animals may use to overcome the challenges of transitioning between terrestrial and aquatic habitats.
