ANHINGAS are great swimmers

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Anhingas: Bad Floaters, Great Sinkers

Anhingas can’t float but can sink. Anhingas are waterbirds with no buoyancy. In other words, they are bad floaters. Think of yourself, arms open, staring at the sky, floating in the ocean. You tend to sink. Much like an anhinga.

Anhingas feathers are not water-tight. The tiny spaces between feathers and skin get waterlogged. That makes them heavier in water. That is why anhingas float with their whole body submerged. This is not great when floating.

Firstly, it cools your body temperature quickly. It also takes more energy to keep afloat.

Finally, it makes it harder to take off from water as sometimes you can see them in oxbow lakes.

Why would a water bird want this anatomy?

Anhingas can't float but can sink. Photo by Paul Bertner

Anhinga by Paul Berter

Here is why Anhingas can’t float but can sink…

  • Bad floaters are good sinkers. Good sinking is great when diving. That is true whether you come in from the air or from water. So anhingas consume less energy below water than other watertight birds.
  • They can also dive deeper. This expands their fishing range. They can get to fish other birds can´t.
  • Waterlogged feathers, however, also mean tightening their range around the tropics. They need a lot of suns to dry off the cold water. They also need to avoid freezing temperatures.

As always –the link to the paper.

And as usual, learn more about AmazonCam here and help us identify the Amazon wildlife that is on the photos taken by our 20-square kilometer grid of 78 cameras snapping away in the middle of the Amazon jungle. You can start practicing photo identification with our free illustrated plates of 172 Amazon Rainforest Animals.

by Kurt Holle

Anhinha in oxbow lake by Paul Bertner

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The lodge is located in the middle of the forest accessible only by boat. The experience was very unique and exciting. Service is great, and the fun part are the nature activities and tours the hotel offers for free. We had an amazing tour guide that had a lot of knowledge and was fun to spend time with. The rooms are totally open to the forest which is really cool the struggle is the there is no privacy at all in between the rooms, also food was pretty basic. All together a very unique experience. Read all

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