Flamingos are

friendly and loyal birds,

research has shown.

Exeter University studied

four flamingo flocks for

four years. They found that,

despite being in giant flocks of

up to two million, flamingos

form small friendship groups,

teaming up to help with

feeding and nesting.

It’s called a stereophonic,

a long, stringy, stingy creature

related to jellyfish.

Biologists from the Western

Australian Museum spotted it

and, although not officially

measured, it is believed to

be around 150 ft long, which

would make it three times as

long as a humpback whale!

A study by Kazushige Touhara, professor and

biochemist at the University of Tokyo, found that the

males release a fruity-smelling perfume from glands

on their wrists when they want to impress a female.

They rub their tails against the gland, before

waving their tail around so that females can smell

their “perfume”. The behavior is known as “stink

flirting”.

Ring-tailed lemurs are known for using different

smells to communicate with each other. They

use scent for marking their territory and to

show where each animal ranks in their social group.

Scientists now plan to further investigate the smells that

the lemurs use to attract females, and how successful it

makes them when it comes to securing a mate.

The full report is published in the nature journal

Current Biology.

ANIMAL NEWS PUZZLE