Are there any animals that couldn't swim to save their life?

Not swim all day, but if they slipped when getting a drink by the river would simply go right under.

I just read a silly cartoon that said giraffes can’t swim because they are too tall and thin, that they would tip over sideways.

Sort of makes sense, although most big mammals can keep their head above water for a while anyway.

Taken literally, this would require a density greater than that of water, which seems unlikely for an air-breathing terrestrial animal.

Cecil addresses the question.

Cecil is named “Jill” now? :dubious:

Only on weekends, Q.E.D… :wink:

Drowning giraffes is a previous thread on this. I’m terribly busy right now and haven’t read it. But I remember discussing this before.

Thanks for pointing that out. I guess I missed it because it was 6 years ago :smack:

Gibbons can’t swim.

This thread just reminded me that I used to have a fantastic picture of elephants swimming in the Bay of Bengal.
Not relevant I know but I just had to pass that on.

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/planetearth/flashapp/flash_alone.shtml?vidID=pe0109](This one?)

The link just says:

Non UK users

Unfortunately you are unable to access this content. This is offered only to audiences in the UK.

If you are resident in the UK and cannot access it please let us know on our feedback page. Thank you.

Watch the programme trail and find out about Planet Earth, the TV series.

Rats! sorry about that then, maybe it will become more widely available later - the series was just shown for the first time an hour ago.

I have 2 pet green anoles. I always thought that most reptiles could swim. When I clean their terrarium, I have a big bucket that I fill with water and dump all the decorations into to soak to get the poo off. Once, I was catching my lizards to put them in their critter keeper while I cleaned the tank out. They’re usually pretty docile and let me pick them up, but this time one of them panicked. He jumped up on the rim of the tank, then sprung at the floor, but fell into the bucket of water. He instantly sank like a brick. If I hadn’t of grabbed him right away I’m sure he would have drowned, as all he seemed to be able to do was flail helplessly at the bottom of the bucket (He’s fully recovered now, btw).

In general, tortoises can’t swim. When mature, the shells of most species tend to be too dense and unwieldy to stay above water, in contrast to terrapins and sea turtles. That said, they are capable of floating for prolonged periods by keeping their lungs inflated (and, being reptiles, they don’t need to breathe as often as warm-blooded animals). But once they finally exhale, they’re hosed. Interestingly, tortoises are (or were) one of the more successful types of island reptile, which can perhaps be accounted for by distribution of juveniles via vegetation rafting.

Weirdly, hippos can’t really swim either. Despite the fact that they are born underwater and spend just about their entire lives in and around the water, hippos have a slight negative buoyancy and tend to sink in deep water. When observing hippos underwater, note that they do not actually swim, but instead take large bounding steps across the riverbed. For this reason, hippos restrict themselves to the relatively shallow waters near shore and don’t go out deeper than they can comfortably hop up to breathe.

I’m told that sloths, despite being utterly pathetic at terrestrial locomotion, are in fact relatively decent swimmers, but I’ve never seen this behavior firsthand.

Interesting. Was the water cold or room temperature? I wonder if the li’l guy’s problem wasn’t due more to cold shock.

Would you have a reference for that claim? I know for example that Galapagos and Aldabran tortoises can swim quite well all things considered, and they certainly don’t sink. Which was one of the things that gave Darwin some problems with the fact that different forms occur ion different islands. He later realised that the current between islands was too powerful for them to overcome.

I don’t doubt that some species of tortoise somewhere may be unable to swim, and the ‘factoid’ that tortoises can’t swim is on lots of web pages, but do you have any reputable references to suggest that most tortoises can’t swim?

Once again, do you have a reference for this claim? I know that hippos can control their bouyancy much as dolphins and whales can, and so are able to sink, float or hover at will. But I have never before heard anyone suggests that hippos can’t swim or don’t go deeper than they can jump up to breathe.

What does “don’t go out deeper than they can comfortably hop up to breathe” mean anyway? Are you suggesting that a hippos such as this one can’t swim to the surface unless they push off the bottom?

Despite the suggestion to the contrary in the SD article, I have personally witnessed an armadillo swim here in the southern US. Up to that point I had heard and believed they would sink. Not so.

I do remember seeing a nature documentary once that showed a sloth swimming. Slowly, but apparently with some skill.

I remember reading once that domestic pigs can swim but do have some trouble keeping their heads above water, because their legs are so short and relatively far back on their bodies. In fact (so this book said) they can end up kind of kicking themselves in the throat!

What sort of reference is considered reputable in these matters, rather than a website ‘factoid?’ Galapagos and Aldabra tortoises may well be adequate swimmers, although your linked photo isn’t very compelling evidence of this on its own-- I can’t help but notice that the sea bottom is clearly visible, and Aldabras are perfectly happy in sufficiently shallow water; they’ll often immerse themselves almost totally to cool off, only poking their noses up every several minutes to breathe.

I admit that my personal experience working with Aldabras has been limited to managed conditions, which didn’t include water too deep for them to stand up and breathe-- just in case, you see. If Peter Hitchens claims that they swim well, I really can’t argue with that, since I’ve never seen them in the wild. However, giant island tortoises are scarcely representative of tortoises in general, as their shells tend to be relatively porous and lightweight due to the lack of native predators.

Pretty much, yes, although my experience is limited to amphibius, rather than the Pygmy Hippo. The newborns can swim (in fact, they have to, in order to breathe right after birth), but mature hippos use the “bottom walk” to get around. Again, I am not sure what would be an acceptable reference to back this up. For my part, I’ve never heard that hippos can “hover at will,” and I’ve never seen one do so for any length of time. If you have evidence of a hippo floating at the surface of a deep body of water for an extended period, then I freely concede my error here as well, and thank you muchly for the correction.

In hindsight, I acknowledge that much of my contribution was rather off the point of the OP, since hippos at least are not likely to slip at the riverbank and “go right under.” Although I have witnessed a Florida gopher tortoise do just that, depressingly.

A refrence in a zoology textbok, a refernce in a zoology journal, a statement from an indentifiable and qualified zoologist with experience of tortoises.

A website factoid is totally unacceptable because I can find literaly thousands of factoid sites saying that a ducks quack doesn’t echo. Factoid sites are notorious for spreading misinformation.

I don’t claim to know much about tortoises. I simply call your post into question because I have seen footage of giant tortoises swimming quite happily and seen the same written by numerous zoologists. Since it clearly isn’t true that tortoises as a group can’t swim I wonder why you believe that most tortoises can’t swim.

So I’ll ask again, do you have any reputable references to support the claim that most (or indeed any) tortoises can’t swim.

I don’t dispute that adults often use the bottom to get around much as parrots usually climb rather than flying around trees. It is more energy efficient to climb or walk that to fly or swim at the same speed. But that doesn’t justify your claim that hippos can’t swim any more than a claim that parrots can’t fly.

And again, any statement from any zoologist with experience of hippos, any zoology textbook, any zoology journal. Even a credible journalist who is willing to claim that he saw a hippo drown would convince me on this issue. But the key word is credible. Some anonymous person on the web who has never seen a hippo is not credible.

Well no, I don’t have any such evidence, and of course it’s rather hard to find such evidence. The only way to tell that hipos are floating and not standing is if the water is crystal clear so you can judge the depth. And any natural body if water with hippos will be extremely turbid. As a result any such footage would have to be form a zoo, and all the zoos I know have relatively shallow pools where you couldn’t determine whether the animal is floating.

But that is beside the point. You made the claim that hiipos can’t swim. I am wondering firstly why you believe that to be true and secondly if anyone with actual knowledge of hippos agrees with you.
Just to show part of the reason why I am highly skeptical of the claim that hippos can’t swim:
They can float on the top of the water resting, Dublin Zoo

Hippos are amphibious and are excellent swimmers. Univeristy of Michigan
Hippos move easily in water, either swimming by kicking their hind legs or walking on the bottom. African Wildlife Foundation
Now none of those are exactly reputable references either, but I would expect that they were all prepared from reputable references or checked by zoologists even though I can’t establish that.

Those sorts of references combined with the gut feeling that any animal that lives in the Nile is unlikely to be unable to swim and the fact that baby hippos can swim makes me question the claim that for some reason adult hippos can’t swim.

The fact that I can’t find a single even semi-reputable reference that suggests that hippos can’t swim makes me all the more dubious.