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(phone ringing)

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- Hi, it's Doug.

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It's not every day you
see an animal that's pink.

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But recently, when I was
visiting the tide pools

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in California, along the ocean,

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I spotted this tiny little animal.

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Up close, it looks like a pink shaggy dog,

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or maybe an alien.

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Turns out, it's a type of sea slug

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that lives along the Pacific coast.

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Someone named Yoxagani has a question

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about a slightly more
famous pink animal though.

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Let's give Yoxagani a call, now.

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(phone ringing)

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- Hi, Doug.

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- Hi, Yoxagani.

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- I have a question for you.

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Why are flamingos pink?

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- That's a great question.

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Birds come in so many different colors,

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but it's not every day you
see a bird that's pink.

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Why are flamingos pink?

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I find it's always interesting to find out

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why something is the color it is.

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We've explored other
color questions before

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for lots of different things.

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Like, why is the sky blue?

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Why is Mars red?

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Why are pumpkins orange?

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And if you've seen those episodes,

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then you know that there are
sometimes different reasons

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why things can be the color they are.

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But, in general, a lot of things around us

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are the color they are because,
on a microscopic level,

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when we look at them close
up under a microscope,

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we find out that they contain
tiny amounts of substances

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made of that color.

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We call these color substances pigments.

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Maybe you've heard that term before?

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Leaves are a great example of this.

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When microscopes were first invented,

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we were able to find out that
the reason leaves are green,

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is because they're filled with
these tiny microscopic blobs

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of a green substance, a green
pigment called chlorophyll.

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And it's a similar reason why most animals

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have the colors they have,

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like this black cat and this
black Labrador retriever.

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When scientists look at
their fur under a microscope,

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they find it contains

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a black-colored pigment called melanin.

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This black-colored pigment in their fur

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is just something these
animals were born with.

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Their whole lives, these animals' bodies

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naturally make melanin
and store it in their fur,

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which is why they're colored black.

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So, you might expect then that
the reason flamingos are pink

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is because their bodies
naturally make some kind

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of pink-colored substance,

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some kind of pink pigment.

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Based on why other animals
have the colors they have,

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that would make sense.

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But have a look at this
baby flamingo, it's cute.

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But notice, it's not pink.

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And check out even these adult flamingos.

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Wait, why are they kind of white?

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Are these some rare,
white kind of flamingo?

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They're not.

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In fact, all flamingos look
kind of light gray or white

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each time they molt, or grow new feathers,

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to start to replace their old feathers.

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The new feathers always
grow in grayish white.

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What, what's going on here?

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Why is it that in so many
photos and videos you see,

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even in flamingos you
might've seen yourself,

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like at the zoo, they look pink?

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Do flamingos somehow change color?

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What do you think?

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Now would be a good time to
pause the video and discuss.

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Okay, you ready?

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Well, our mystery can be solved

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by noticing something
zookeepers would have noticed

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when they first started
keeping flamingos in zoos.

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You see, they had to decide
what to feed the flamingos.

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With other water birds,
zookeepers knew it always worked

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to feed them specially made pellets,

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kind of like bird chow,

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and flamingos seemed
to do okay on that too.

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But this isn't what
flamingos eat in the wild.

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And zookeepers soon
discovered that flamingos,

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fed these pellets,

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well, once they started
growing new feathers,

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their feathers came in
white and stayed white,

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as in they lost most of their pink color.

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And there didn't seem to be any hope

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of them getting it back,

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until someone had the idea,

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"Wait, could it be there's something

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"that wild flamingos are eating,

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"which isn't in these
pellets we're feeding

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"the flamingos at the zoo?"

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There was only one way to find out.

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And that was to observe
flamingos in the wild

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and find out exactly what they're eating,

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then feed the same wild
food to the white flamingos

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at the zoo and see what happens.

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It turns out flamingos in the
wild, they eat lots of algae.

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That's small plant-like organisms
that float in the water,

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as well as tiny shrimp
that look like this.

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Both the algae and the shrimp
that wild flamingos eat

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contain a kind of
orangish-pink colored pigment.

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You can actually see this color
really easily in the shrimp.

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The pink color in the
algae that flamingos eat

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isn't always easy to see.

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But there are some types of algae

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that are much more obviously pink,

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like the algae that lives
in this lake in Australia,

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named Lake Hillier,

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but known around the world
as Australia's Pink Lake.

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Or if you ever fly in and out
of San Francisco, California,

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you can notice this algae
growing in some of the ponds

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along the edge of San Francisco Bay.

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Sure enough, by feeding
things like algae and shrimp

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to flamingos in the zoo,

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they get their pink color
back and they keep it.

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So, in a funny way, flamingos
are like a real life example

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of the expression, "You
are, what you eat."

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They get their pink color
from the pink pigments

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in the foods that they eat.

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It might seem really unusual,

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but flamingos aren't even the only animals

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that get their color from
the foods that they eat.

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That sea slug I showed you earlier?

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It's pink because of what it eats.

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And it's not just with
the color pink either.

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Some birds, like Cardinals,

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they get their red color from pigments

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in seeds and berries that they eat.

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But maybe weirdest of all,

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it turns out that even human
beings can change color,

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depending on the food that we eat.

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It's been discovered that
when parents accidentally feed

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their babies too much baby food

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containing orange-colored
fruits and vegetables,

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things like carrots,
squash and sweet potatoes,

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a baby's skin can start to
take on an orangish color,

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especially their noses.

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This tends to be more noticeable in babies

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that have otherwise pale skin.

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If this happens, at first it can make

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any parent feel worried,
"Is my baby okay?"

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But doctors don't consider
it a major health problem.

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They just suggest that the
parent maybe not feed the baby

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quite so many carrots and
sweet potatoes all at once.

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So, in summary, while most animals

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are born with the colors they have,

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flamingos get their famously pink color

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from the food that they eat.

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That's all for this week's question.

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Thanks, Yoxagani, for asking it.

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There are mysteries all around us.

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Stay curious and see you next week.