Re: Tears and 'salt excre
J. Moore (j#d#.moore@canrem.com)
Sat, 4 Nov 95 11:51:00 -0500
Bb> >What do whales drink? Do they not drink for weeks at a time? Or
Bb> >maybe they swim up to rivers and then go upstream until there's
Bb> >no salt left in the river, drink and swim back to the ocean.
Bb> >How about seals? Where do they find water to drink? And how
Bb> >about the other critters like doogongs (sp?), walruses, sea
Bb> >otters.
Bb> Jim Moore has graciously saved me the trouble of how whales drink so I
Bb> shan't bother with that... <snipped>
Bb> Bill
Actually, I pointed out that marine mammals and birds *can drink*
seawater and, unlike humans, excrete enough salt to make it
worthwhile. In nature, it is not certain that any of them
actually do deliberately drink water of any kind in the wild.
They do, of course, end up drinking seawater as a result of eating
marine animals and plants, both from the water in the foods and
through incidental swallowing while obtaining and eating food.
Their kidneys (in the case of mammals) or salt glands (in the case
of birds) allow them to excrete the massive amounts of salt they
obtain from all these sources, and leave them with a balance of
freshwater.
Jim Moore (j#d#.moore@canrem.com)
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