Seals are interesting creatures that have many adaptations for their aquatic lifestyle. One such adaptation is the way in which they drink water. While seals spend the majority of their time in the water, they must come up to the surface to breathe.
This gives them the opportunity to take a quick drink. Seals have developed a unique way of drinking water while still remaining submerged. They do this by sucking in small amounts of water and then expelling it through their nostrils.
Seals are marine mammals that spend a great deal of their time in the water. But how do they drink?
Seals have two main ways of drinking water.
The first is by simply swallowing small amounts of water while they are swimming. The second way is by scooping up water with their front paws and then sucking it up through their nostrils.
Interestingly, seals do not have any Urinary Bladder to store urine in like we do.
Instead, they excrete all wastes directly from their kidneys into the surrounding seawater. This process is called “ureotelism” and allows seals to stay hydrated without having to stop and drink often.
How Do Dolphins Drink Water
Dolphins are one of the few mammals that drink water. They do so by swallowing water and then expelling it through their nose. Dolphins have a special organ called a pharyngeal gland that filters salt from the water they swallow.
This allows them to drink freshwater without getting sick.
How Do Whales Drink Water?
It is a common misconception that whales drink salt water. In fact, they cannot do so because their kidneys are only able to filter out relatively small amounts of salt. Instead, they get the water they need from the food they eat – which consists mainly of tiny shrimp-like creatures called krill.
When a whale eats krill, it takes in not only the krill’s body, but also a lot of water. The whale’s stomach filters out the krill and squeezes most of the water back out before passing everything else on to the intestines. In this way, a whale can consume several thousand litres of seawater every day without suffering any ill effects.
Of course, this process is not 100% efficient, and some water does end up in the whale’s bloodstream. This excess water is removed by specialised cells in the kidney (known as filtering units) and passed out as urine.
What Do Seals Drink to Stay Hydrated?
Seals are marine mammals that spend the majority of their time in the water. They have a thick layer of blubber which helps to keep them warm in cold water and also provides some buoyancy. Although they can hold their breath for long periods of time, they still need to come up for air occasionally.
When they are swimming, they will often just break the surface with their nose to take a quick breath before going back under again.
To stay hydrated, seals drink seawater. Their kidneys are very efficient at filtering out the salt and other impurities from the water so that they can drink it without getting sick.
How Do Sea Creatures Drink Water?
Most sea creatures have adapted to the high salt content of seawater by excreting excess salt through their gills. To drink, they filter seawater through their gills and absorb fresh water from the resulting mixture. Some sea creatures, such as sharks and rays, cannot filtering seawater through their gills and must actively pump water over their gills using their mouths.
Can Seals Live Without Water?
No, seals cannot live without water. They are marine mammals and need to be in the water to survive. If they are out of the water for too long, they will dehydrate and die.
Conclusion
Seals are marine mammals that spend the majority of their time in the water. Given that they are aquatic animals, one might assume that they would drink salt water. However, seals actually drink fresh water, which they get from eating ice or licking droplets of water off of their fur.
In order to drink fresh water, seals must eat ice or lick droplets of water off their fur. Seals typically eat ice by biting into it and then swallowing the melted water. To lick droplets of water off their fur, seals will often shake their bodies vigorously to create a rain of sorts, which they can then lap up with their tongues.
