# Are there any animals that couldn't swim to save their life? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 5, 2006, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-couldnt-swim-to-save-their-life/347175 "2006-03-05T20:13:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-couldnt-swim-to-save-their-life/347175/21 "2006-03-06T03:21:26Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > So I’ll ask again, do you have any reputable references to support the claim that most (or indeed any) tortoises can’t swim. No, I don’t. I was wrong about this. Thank you for the correction. > [@](#): > > 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. I was wrong about this as well. Once again, thank you for the correction. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-couldnt-swim-to-save-their-life/347175/22 "2006-03-06T03:47:43Z")
The hippo swim/not swim issue[is discussed here at length](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Hippopotamus) (with numerous cites) but has no definitive conclusions ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-couldnt-swim-to-save-their-life/347175/23 "2006-03-06T03:57:49Z")
> [@astro](#): > > The hippo swim/not swim issue[is discussed here at length](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Hippopotamus) (with numerous cites) but has no definitive conclusions [Interesting note here. Apparently hippos will eat meat on occasion](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippopotamus) ---
**Author:** ![Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazon_Floozy_Goddess)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-couldnt-swim-to-save-their-life/347175/24 "2006-03-06T04:07:31Z")
> [@Terrifel](#): > > Interesting. Was the water cold or room temperature? I wonder if the li’l guy’s problem wasn’t due more to cold shock. It was warm, just a bit warmer than lukewarm. Not enough to shock, I don’t think. ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-couldnt-swim-to-save-their-life/347175/25 "2006-03-06T04:17:02Z")
I hope this doesn’t sound incredibly ignorant, but there are plenty of humans who can’t swim to save their lives. Granted these are only individuals, as many, many, humans swim just fine. Maybe it’s not as instinctual in humans? Also, does anyonwe have a cite for the sloth being able to swim? That was the first animal that came to mind. Some sloths look like they couldn’t outrun a glacier, let alone move quickly enough to even tread water. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-couldnt-swim-to-save-their-life/347175/26 "2006-03-06T04:20:10Z")
> [@Amazon Floozy Goddess](#): > > It was warm, just a bit warmer than lukewarm. Not enough to shock, I don’t think. Weird. I’ve seen Cuban Brown anoles swim, so I wouldn’t have thought that Greens would have difficulty either. My understanding is that the Greens spend more time in the trees than the Browns, so maybe they have less of a knack for it than their ground-dwelling relatives-- but if a sloth can spend its entire frickin’ life in the trees and still be able to swim if need be, one would think the Green anole would be at least mildly competent at treading water. Or maybe that specific Green anole of yours is just a spaz. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-couldnt-swim-to-save-their-life/347175/27 "2006-03-06T04:22:53Z")
Thanks for that astro. Seems likely it’s one of those stories that got garbled in the various translations. No really defintiive references either way with various zoos and wildlife organisations saying they can or can’t float and are either excellent swimmers or poor swimmer or can’t really swim at all. I’m guesing from the ‘evidence’ so far that hippos can swim but don’t readily float, so when they stop swimming they sink. In that repsect they are somewhat like sharks. Someone presumably thought ‘can’t float’ translated to ‘can’t swim’ and started writing it that way, from where it has spread. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-couldnt-swim-to-save-their-life/347175/28 "2006-03-06T04:43:15Z")
> [@dnooman](#): > > Also, does anyonwe have a cite for the sloth being able to swim? That was the first animal that came to mind. Some sloths look like they couldn’t outrun a glacier, let alone move quickly enough to even tread water. Swimming sloths have been filmed numerous times [eg](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/6304473869/ref=nosim/102-9080960-1002541?n=404272%5B/url). Unless there is some reason to suspect all the footage has been faked then I think that counts as definitive reference that sloths can indeed swim. Very slowly it’s true, but nonethless they can swim. ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-couldnt-swim-to-save-their-life/347175/29 "2006-03-06T04:52:16Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > Swimming sloths have been filmed numerous times [eg](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/6304473869/ref=nosim/102-9080960-1002541?n=404272%5B/url). Unless there is some reason to suspect all the footage has been faked then I think that counts as definitive reference that sloths can indeed swim. Very slowly it’s true, but nonethless they can swim. Can all species of sloths swim? The cite does say “the usually lethargic three-toed sloth swimming agilely among the branches”, but it wouldn’t surprise me if a certain species could not swim. I have no evidence that sloths as a whole can’t swim, I’m just intrigued by the possibility that they can all swim. ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-couldnt-swim-to-save-their-life/347175/30 "2006-03-06T04:57:08Z")
I have seen the footage of a sloth swimming in a flooded jungle, cool ass footage. most animals can swim to some extent or another but the one about gorillas is probably true. as posted a low body fat human will have trouble staying afloat. imagine a human with quintuple the muscle/bone density trying to swim. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-couldnt-swim-to-save-their-life/347175/31 "2006-03-06T08:59:58Z")
> [@dnooman](#): > > Can all species of sloths swim? Beats me. I know there _are_ different species of sloths but they all look the same to me. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-couldnt-swim-to-save-their-life/347175/32 "2006-03-06T14:41:27Z")
A neighbor used to breed bulldogs (well, I guess he still probably does, but moved away) and had a pool, carefully fenced in of course. We were over at his house one day, chatting in the living room by the window, and somebody had left the pool gate open. One of the dogs fell in, and our neighbor bolted to the door and dove in, fully clothed, to rescue the dog (which had sunk like a rock). He told us that bulldogs can’t swim because they’re too heavily muscled, although I don’t know if his explanation is true or not. The dog definately did sink, though, in a panic. ---
**Author:** ![Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazon_Floozy_Goddess)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-couldnt-swim-to-save-their-life/347175/33 "2006-03-06T16:49:21Z")
> [@Terrifel](#): > > Weird. I’ve seen Cuban Brown anoles swim, so I wouldn’t have thought that Greens would have difficulty either. My understanding is that the Greens spend more time in the trees than the Browns, so maybe they have less of a knack for it than their ground-dwelling relatives-- but if a sloth can spend its entire frickin’ life in the trees and still be able to swim if need be, one would think the Green anole would be at least mildly competent at treading water. I used to own a few browns. The opportunity never arose for one to swim, but they do generally move faster than the greens do. This could have something to do with it. > [@Terrifel](#): > > Or maybe that specific Green anole of yours is just a spaz. This is a possibility as well. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-couldnt-swim-to-save-their-life/347175/34 "2006-03-06T17:26:30Z")
> [@Nic2004](#): > > 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 don’t doubt that that’s true but I’ve also witnessed them (one) cross a small stream by running along it’s bottom. I don’t rightly know what it would have done with a larger body of water, as my friend and I were too convulsed by laughter at the sight to pursue this particular Texas Hill Country armadillo any further. ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-couldnt-swim-to-save-their-life/347175/35 "2006-03-06T18:12:38Z")
> [@Critical1](#): > > I have seen the footage of a sloth swimming in a flooded jungle, cool ass footage. most animals can swim to some extent or another but the one about gorillas is probably true. as posted a low body fat human will have trouble staying afloat. imagine a human with quintuple the muscle/bone density trying to swim. I belienve your basic human is a lousy swimmer, to the point where an outside observer would say we are non-swimmers\*… without training. Swimming is a learned behavior for humans, not an instinctual one, so it is reasonable to think other primates would be at least somewhat similar, and those with much greater disadvantages (gorillas) would be in serious trouble in the water. Of course it will just be speculation until one intrepid Doper takes it upon themselves to toss one in a lake. \*Apparently newborns are supposed to be reasonable swimmers, but then again they are big balls of floating fat. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-couldnt-swim-to-save-their-life/347175/36 "2006-03-06T18:25:24Z")
Oysters can’t swim. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-couldnt-swim-to-save-their-life/347175/37 "2006-03-08T04:59:16Z")
> [@dnooman](#): > > Can all species of sloths swim? > > The cite does say “the usually lethargic three-toed sloth swimming agilely among the branches”, but it wouldn’t surprise me if a certain species could not swim. > > I have no evidence that sloths as a whole can’t swim, I’m just intrigued by the possibility that they can all swim. I have personally seen Three-toed Sloths swim, and swim quite well, although slowly. There are 3 (or 4) species of Three-toed Sloths, and I have no reason to suppose that they are much different in swimming ability. And while I have not seen Two-toed Sloths swim (there are 2 species), several sites say they can. The initial follow-up thread on Jill’s Staff Report was this one: [Re: Can camels swim?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=41778), which has the distinction of being the first thread I posted to on the SDMB, which I did in order to defend the swimming ability of sloths. An interesting outcome of the discussion in that thread was that apparently the only mammals which are not known to be able to swim are the Great Apes - Gorilla, Chimps, and Orangutans (and maybe some kinds of gophers from arid climates). See my post at the start of the second page of that thread for a summary of the evidence. And although infant humans may show some innate swimming ability, an adult human that has not learned to swim will drown, unlike most other mammals. ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-couldnt-swim-to-save-their-life/347175/38 "2006-03-08T05:20:20Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I have personally seen Three-toed Sloths swim, and swim quite well, although slowly. There are 3 (or 4) species of Three-toed Sloths, and I have no reason to suppose that they are much different in swimming ability. And while I have not seen Two-toed Sloths swim (there are 2 species), several sites say they can. > > The initial follow-up thread on Jill’s Staff Report was this one: [Re: Can camels swim?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=41778), which has the distinction of being the first thread I posted to on the SDMB, which I did in order to defend the swimming ability of sloths. > > An interesting outcome of the discussion in that thread was that apparently the only mammals which are not known to be able to swim are the Great Apes - Gorilla, Chimps, and Orangutans (and maybe some kinds of gophers from arid climates). See my post at the start of the second page of that thread for a summary of the evidence. And although infant humans may show some innate swimming ability, an adult human that has not learned to swim will drown, unlike most other mammals. Remarkable. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![conurepete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@conurepete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/conurepete)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-couldnt-swim-to-save-their-life/347175/39 "2006-03-08T12:05:27Z")
I had a green anole and he could swim just fine: he stuck his little arms and legs back along his body, and swished along at a respectable pace by s-curving his way through water like a snake. I never saw him paddle, just wiggle along the top of the water. ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-couldnt-swim-to-save-their-life/347175/40 "2006-03-08T16:20:58Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > And although infant humans may show some innate swimming ability, an adult human that has not learned to swim will drown, unlike most other mammals. From all I have seen they will drown too. A big to do was made of the fact that they know to hold their breath right away. Combine that with their high buoyancy and it almost looks like they know what they are doing. I do not believe they can raise their head enough to take a breath in the water without assistance. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-couldnt-swim-to-save-their-life/347175.md?page=1)