Hi, long time reader of the boards, first time poster.
Was discussing this with some friends tonight, and I defended the opinion that all mammals can at least swim a little bit: i.e. if you drop them in the middle of a pond, they’ll swim to the edges, and get out.
My friends were absolutely CERTAIN that this was NOT the case…for instance, according to them, how could an animal like a Man-Ape (Gorrilla, Chimpansee, Orang-Oetang) or a Giraffe or an Elephant swim. They think that’s impossible, I think they at least know how to float and reach the edges. Please help us in this on-going discussion
I need to take this opportunity to point out that I was wrong in that earlier thread. In it, I claimed that three-toed sloths could not swim but had such low metabolisms that they could cross rivers by walking along the bottom.
I have since learned that even three-toed sloths appear to like swimming, and are actually fairly adept at it. They can, however, remain underwater for unusual lengths of time. I would have corrected myself earlier, but I forgot.
Floating. Most mammals–and many reptiles (like monitor lizards, and iguanas, both of which can swim)–can float just fine.
Breathing. This is the problem for apes. Most quadrupeds have a body design that leaves their nostrils above water when they’re floating/swimming.
Our natural floating position: the “dead man’s float”. We have to work our asses off to keep our heads above water. As anyone who has done the classic “crawl” stroke knows, the natural place for your nostrils/mouth to be is underwater–face-down. You have to develop an elaborate system of turning your head well to the side to take in breaths, or adopt a different stroke–like the “dog paddle”–where you keep your head up but only through great effort.
Chimps and gorillas and such, whose bodies are similar to our own, are in the same boat (so to speak).
On reading the other topic (quickly glancing it, more like) I still am a little curious: if I were to do an experiment of tossing a random mammal (Giraffe, Cat, Dog, anything) into the water, what would they do? Float around looking to their bosses to get them out, or paddle along to the edges of the water and get out. Apparently, my friends (who have now left, leaving me to clean up the mess…isn’t that one of Murphy’s more obscure laws? ) dig the fact that a dog could swim, but they say tossing a Cat or a Giraffe or an Elephant into the water has the effect of some drowned mammals. I knew Elephants could swim (saw it on Discovery ) but the rest…
She also brought up the point that in some Zoo’s they keep the large Cats (Lions and Tigers) in one place by surrounding them by water, which according to them proves that they don’t swim. I countered by saying they REALLY REALLY hate swimming, but they actually CAN do it.
Thanks again!
You mean jaguars love to swim. Leopards are more partial to dragging carcasses up onto tree branches. Oh, leopards are able to swim, but loving it? Nah.
I’m sure any mammal would doggie paddle frantically to the edge. my cat used to fall into baths filled higher than his head and never drowned. Racoons are handy with water and can surely swim. I know for a fact that horses can swim, as can other large herbivores like caribou. (My WAG is that running animals have a proportionately large lung capacity which makes them naturally bouyant, since as you can imagine horse’s legs do not provide much paddle power)
(side note: you’d have to toss a Giraffe into some really deep water to drown it.)
It only proves they can’t jump the hight of the surrounding wall while swimming. The water is wide enough so that the cats cannot jump from the edge of the land and over the wall, either.
Elephants are notorious for swimming miles with their trunks out of the water like snorkels. And as for giraffes, well giraffes have purple tongues and like to eat eucalyptus. So I guess that’s all cleared up.
I can add two personal annecdotes: First off, on the subject of cats, I once (stupidly) threw one of our cats into the wading pool (about 2’ deep) upon hearing my father assure me that cats loved the water. She most emphatically did not like this, but she got out on her own. As for dogs, yes, we all know they can swim, but the first time we threw my old dog bear into the water (he was a retreiver; they’re supposed to love swimming), he actually doggypaddled so hard that by the time he got to the edge of the pond, he wasn’t even wet above halfway up his legs. Make of that what you will.
This site says chimpanzee’s cannot swim, but not why.
TWAGOS: However, in the “Quantum Leap” episode “The Wrong Stuff”, it was explained that chimps’ bodies are so lean (little fat) that they’re not very boyant.
(If you missed the episode [or the entire series]: Sam, the time traveller [leaper] lept into the place of a person in the past; however in this episode, he lept into a chimpanzee, Bobo, who was a potential astrochimp. [Through some pseudo-science, he looked like the person he lept into, even though his body was actually there {He had their “arua”}. Animals and small children could see through the guise, though.] Also, Bobo’s aura wouldn’t allow him to talk to anyone; they just heard chimp talk. At some point, the chimp expert explained why chimps couldn’t swim.
At the climax of the episode, Bobo’s nemisis [a scientist that wanted chimps to test crash helmets] falls into a pond and started to drown. Sam, as Bobo, jumps in and saves him, much to every one else’s amazement since chimps can’t swim. Happy ending, yada yada yada…)
As for giraffes, they may like eucalyptus, but only those captive giraffes that live in zoos where eucalyptus are growing. In their natural habitat, eucalyptus being nearly impossible to find, giraffes prefer to eat acacia.
Small cats can swim just fine, but domestics often don’t ever get accustomed to the water. Even if they do they don’t hang around in deep water (they swim across quickly) but where the water is shallow enough that they can wade, they will hunt for aquatic prey.
Some big cats don’t mind water at all: there’s an island six or eight miles somewhere off the coast of China, and tigers are sighted swimming the distance between every now and then, of their own accord.
I know I’ve seen other apes swim on TV, and they aren’t that different from chimps. Me smells a UL here. Maybe chimps don’t swim because they’re afraid of suicidal lemmings.
A couple different people who owned ferrets have told me that ferrets don’t like to swim at all, and yet I have seen wild/feral? ferets swimming completely underwater scouring the bottom of a nearby creek on a few occasions, hunting for food. - MC
If you saw a ferret in the wild, you saw an escaped pet. Escaped pet ferrets are not equipped for feral living, and most die in short time. They aren’t even strong enough to tip over garbage cans. Fending off a dog? Forget it.
The only wild ferret found in the US is the endangered black-footed ferret, the rarest mammal in the entire United States. It is thought that the only individuals left are in captive breeding programs or experimental communities.
Perhaps you saw a weasel or mink? They like to fish.
There is something about the build and balance of the giraffes that makes it impossible for them to swim.
There are problems as will with our closely related pals: the apes, chimps and all. While some might like water and even bathe, some have arm/shoulder/boyancy/ and other problems - knees that won’t ever straighten out is one I remember, that prevent swimming.
) dig the fact that a dog could swim, but they say tossing a Cat or a Giraffe or an Elephant into the water has the effect of some drowned mammals. I knew Elephants could swim (saw it on Discovery