Others birds, such as herons, storks, ducks and many others also often stand on a single leg in water, perhaps for the same reasons as flamingoes.

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Hutchinson's unconventional route to fitness included strapping water bottles to his leg and lifting it while he lay in his hospital bed to maintain his leg muscles and he also cycled extensively with a protective metal cage on the injured left leg.

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Of course the all important rule is all on board is to hydrate well, something the crew discovered toward the end of the first leg of the journey, when water levels on board were so low not enough could be spared to keep the on-board hydroponic garden alive.

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He had stretched out his stockinged foot and dipped his big toe into the water, moving it slowly back and forth, his leg fully extended, for he could only just reach far enough to touch the surface.

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However, the researchers did find that flamingoes prefer to stand on one leg far more often when they are standing in water than when standing on land, they report in the journal Zoo Biology.

BBC: Earth News - Why flamingoes stand on one leg

Later on, due to the crossing taking longer than expected, Allen's water supply would run out leaving him dangerously dehydrated and contending with leg cramps -- far from ideal when pedaling across the English Channel.

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Viana laughed again and, stretching his leg out farther, dipped his whole stockinged foot into the water and began to move it slowly, heavily around, more heavily than before because now his whole foot that wide, obese foot was submerged.

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Morris was enormously good-natured despite hideous scars on his right arm (the result of boiling water scalding it when he was a youngster) and having to wear a wooden leg (the result of a carriage accident).

FORBES

We made it across without difficulty, but on the return leg we got caught in a riptide near East Chop lighthouse and started taking on water.

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