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Why langurs drink salt water
- tiahura 2y agoI’ve always wondered about ocean mammals. Those poor dolphins and whales have never had a drink of fresh water. When I ask marine biologists, I get: their mouths are really good at sealing - related, but not quite on point, and 2 they get their fresh water from food - to which my reaction is, if I’m really thirty, no amount of salty shrimp are going to satisfy.
- kayodelycaon 2y agoHumans aren’t adapted for salt water. We use water evaporation for cooling. Our kidneys don’t minimize water usage. This adaptation is not limited to marine mammals. Jerboas (Desert rodent) get all of their water from food. Additionally, most marine mammals don’t eat a diet of shrimp. Fish are much less salty than seawater.
- mpreda 2y agoThere's also a different way of "getting water from food": methabolizing (burning) carbohidrates with oxygen produces CO2 (carbon dioxyde) and.. water. I think that desert mouse eats very dry grain (which does not contain much water), but does not need to drink water because of that by-product of metabolism.
- frickinLasers 2y agoWhat do the fish drink?
- kayodelycaon 2y agoFresh water fish need to keep salt in and salt water fish need to push it out. They do this with their gills and kidneys.
- garyclarke27 2y agoCats can drink a small amounts of salt water, my cat is quite happy drinking our salty swimming pool water.
- Tagbert 2y agoWhy is your swimming pool water salty? Do you fill it from ocean water? I’m asking because most people fill from the municipal water supply which is not salty.
- c0balt 2y agoSalted pools are an alternative to chlorinated pools. It's mainly about slowing down the growth of gunk and keeping it clean enough.
- garyclarke27 2y agoIt uses a salt water system for sterilisation, is much nicer than chlorine based system - machine does make chlorine from salt but you don't notice it when swimming. No I don't use ocean water, I have a fresh water well then I add about 20 sacks of salt every year.
- koolba 2y agoWhy do you have to add more salt? Do you drain the pool regularly? I would imagine the salt stays in the pool when the water evaporates.
- JumpCrisscross 2y agoBrine pools typically have an electrolysis system that manufactures chlorine from the salt. As such, it’s a salty with low chlorine levels pool, which is still more pleasant than a high-chlorine pool.
- koolba 2y agoI understand what the salt is for. I don’t understand why you have to add more. If the water evaporates the salt remains. And the split sodium and chlorine also recombine. So how does it disapear?
- jonstewart 2y agoTIL: Langurs are a genus of monkeys. Only the Cat Ba langur species drinks salt water. Other species are not as endangered. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semnopithecus https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semnopithecus
- Mistletoe 2y agoIncredibly light on just how they are able to drink the salt water. Google AI result is laughably bad. > Cat Ba langurs drink salt water by using their tails to sip it. This adaptation helps them survive in their isolated environment on Cat Ba Island in Vietnam, where freshwater sources are limited. 2024 in a nutshell, people.
- vintagedave 2y agoThis Nature paper has more info: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-52811-7 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-52811-7 > The Cat Ba langur also exhibits several unique non-synonymous variants that are related to calcium and sodium metabolism, which may have improved adaptation to high calcium intake and saltwater consumption.
- Mistletoe 2y agoOh thank you. And the image explains the tail thing more fully. They lick saltwater from their tail.
- tantalor 2y agoFrustrating article to read. I think the answer to "why" is implied here: > This extraordinary ability is a direct consequence of their isolated island home, where there are only limited freshwater sources. The real answer is: they drink salt water because fresh water is scarce; it's their only option.
- dyauspitr 2y agoI care little for the “why” and more about the “how”.
- 725686 2y agoCat Ba langurs are not cats... The article says they are primates. Not a single photo though.
- jwilk 2y agoHover over the photo at the top, then click the arrow to see the next one. Direct link to the critter photo: https://nachrichten.idw-online.de/image/399151/screen https://nachrichten.idw-online.de/image/399151/screen
- Aachen 2y agoMy new phone doesn't have a pen anymore, so I can't hover :( Thanks for the direct link!
- tingletech 2y agoThat link serves a binary file; but has content-type: text/html -- not cool
- jwilk 2y agoI see "content-type: image/jpeg" in Firefox's Network Monitor.
- h4ck_th3_pl4n3t 2y agoQuestion: How many times can you rewrite the same amount of information into multiple different paragraphs? DW Online: Yes