How flamingos stay in the pink
QUESTION Are flamingos able to drink boiling water? Flamingos are extraordinary creatures in many ways — but they can’t drink boiling water.
Perhaps the most famous flamingo lake in the world is lake Bogoria, one of the Rift Valley lakes in Kenya.
The 22-mile long body of water is home to approximately half a million lesser flamingos (Phoenicoparrus minor) — the highest density of flamingos worldwide and approximately half of the world’s population of these beautiful birds. at times, the number of birds increases to two million.
lake Bogoria is alkaline with a pH level of 10.5 at the western bank — strong enough to strip the skin of a human. on average, the lake is twice as saline as seawater. This is because the only source of water is hot springs and some perennial rivers. as there is no outlet, the level of the lake is regulated by rain and heat.
The hot springs range in temperature from 39c to 98.5c, but the average temperature of the lake is 29c. The flamingos will drink close to the springs, as this is a better source of freshwater, but the temperatures are no greater than 35c.
Perhaps more significant is their ability to tolerate a hypersaline environment that is hostile to practically all other forms of life. The alkaline, warm lake water is excellent media for flamingo food, cyanobacteria Arthrospira fusiformis, and some other micro-organisms. it is by eating these bacteria that the flamingo gets its distinctive pink pigment.
To survive this harsh environment, salt is excreted through glands that are located above the eyes. The glands then drain to the nasal cavity and the salt is released through the nostrils.
Dr Ian Smith, Cambridge.
QUESTION Years ago, ghostly Roman soldiers were reported in York’s Treasurer’s House. Have they made any recent appearances?
THe Treasurer’s House in York is a grade i-listed historic house owned by the national Trust. The building and its neigh- bour, gray’s Court, are reputed to be two of the most haunted places in the country. The Treasurer’s House’s ghostly fame rests on the appearance of a troop of Roman soldiers to a credible witness.
The first Treasurer’s House was established in 1091, but all that remains is an external wall which forms part of gray’s Court. The current house was established in the late 16th and early 17th century. it was built directly over a Roman highway.
During 17th-century renovations, four Roman column bases were uncovered, one of which remains in-situ in the cellar and was used as a base for a modern set of columns in the main hall.
Harry martindale was an 18-year-old apprentice heating engineer in 1953 when he saw at least 20 Roman soldiers, visible only from the knees up, marching through the cellar of the Treasurer’s House.
Harry, who went on to become a policeman for 30 years, said he saw a soldier wearing a helmet emerge from a wall, followed by a cart horse and 20 other soldiers. Terrified, he fell from his ladder and stumbled into the corner.
He was so frightened that he took two weeks off work with shock. People laughed at his story, so he kept quiet until the seventies, when he was interviewed by academics for TV, and York’s most famous ghost story was born.
The tale also gained legitimacy after Harry described several aspects of the Roman soldiers’ clothing that he would not have known at the time. Those sceptical of his story have noted that the incident occurred in the Fifties, when Hollywood ‘sword and sandals’ epic movies were so popular.
The acute potency of martindale’s tale put it at the heart of the successful ghostwalking industry flourishing in York since the seventies, promoted as ‘the most haunted city in england’.
a Fortean Times investigation concluded there had been no further firsthand accounts of the ghostly legionnaires. While alan murdie, in his ghostwatch column, reckons martindale genuinely believed he saw the ghosts, he speculates it may have been the product of him falling off his ladder.
Tim Beglin, York.
QUESTION Are people misusing the word ‘nauseous’ when they feel sick; aren’t they feeling nauseated?
nauseous vs nauseated is an english argument that’s been around for a long time, with no satisfying conclusion. The word nausea comes from the greek
nausia or nautia, which originally meant seasickness (greek naus = ship). in latin,
nauseare meant to make sick; nauseated (from the supine form nauseatum), therefore, means made to feel sick (verb transitive) or feeling sick (adjective).
The ‘causing sickness’ sense was first recorded in a Prospective glasse To look into Heaven, a 1618 poem by John Vicars. ‘Which, though some Wretches atheisticall, some nauseous neuter, satan’s Tennis-Ball, some execrable sadduces (i say) Which doe the Resurrection denay, Though some vile sectists Pythagoricall, or infidells most Diabolicall.’
This form was generally agreed upon until World War ii. strunk and White, in The elements of style, agreed: ‘[nauseous] means “sickening to contemplate”; [nauseated] means “sick at the stomach”. Do not, therefore, say “i feel nauseous”, unless you are sure you have that effect on others.’
However, in america particularly, the meaning began to drift and nauseous began to mean ‘feeling sick’.
not all scholars agree and, when writing formally in english, one should consider Theodore Bernstein, author of The Careful Writer, who wrote: ‘People who are nauseated are no more nauseous than people who are poisoned are poisonous.’
W. Roberts, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion.
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