4 ms·
Sperm Whales blow bubbles to achieve restful, vertical sleep
- dnnehgf 2mo agosame
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- giardini 2mo agoWhat happens if they have an attack of flatulence? But seriously, this must happen sometimes!
- karim79 2mo agoThey accelerate upwards and their bubbling metabolism will compensate. If any creatures on the surface die from inhalation of the fart then the whales become awake and feed on them immediately. Slumber resumed. It's like a background clean-up process.
- KurSix 2mo agoA real flatulence event would probably qualify as a minor geological disturbance
- kazinator 2mo agoIf these are rainbow bubbles, that conclusively proves the whales had ADHD therapy sessions.
- dguest 2mo agoThe title of the original article [1] is a lot more clear: Buoyancy regulation through modulation of onboard gas volume by resting sperm whales They don't "blow bubbles" to sleep vertically, they vent gas to regulate their specific gravity. This allows them to sleep vertically below the surface. The scientists measured the gas release by listening for bubbles, but they did a lot more: they actually modeled the buoyancy of whales and compared it with data. If you've done any scuba diving (or swimming) you're familiar with this method of buoyancy control. And most fish accomplish on actively transporting gas between an internal bladder and their blood. The difference is that whales have no way to refill their lungs while submerged, which is why their dives start deep and slowly drift up: as long as they are drifting upward the volume in their lungs is expanding in response to decreasing pressure. So the bubbles are essentially a way of pumping the breaks, which is apparently something they can do in their sleep (if they are in fact sleeping). Is anyone else slightly annoyed by the cutesy title? Of course I recognize that the meme economy runs on this stuff, so maybe it's just nerds like me. [1]: https://dmscdn.vuelio.co.uk/publicitem/61eae467-9527-4922-b967-b5d362f12998 https://dmscdn.vuelio.co.uk/publicitem/61eae467-9527-4922-b9...
- pfannkuchen 2mo agoI’m going to start referring to exhaling as “venting gas”. Thank you.
- wzdd 2mo ago> They don't "blow bubbles" to sleep vertically, they vent gas to regulate their specific gravity. This allows them to sleep vertically When I read this I thought you'd discovered that the whales release the gas in a form other than by blowing bubbles, or that the purpose of doing so was for something other than improved sleep. But no, the whales literally release air through their blowhole in the form of bubbles, and, at least during study you linked, they do this while resting to maintain their vertical orientation. An orientation, the paper theorises, that enables better sleep by not being buffeted by waves. They quite literally blow bubbles to achieve restful, vertical sleep.
- dguest 2mo ago
- KurSix 2mo agoI have a question... how many other "normal" animal behaviors are actually weird little hacks to deal with constraints we never think about?
- sethammons 2mo agoProbably all of the behaviors. Life is resource management of inputs and outputs, and every niche has unique constraints. Pure sexual selection can lead to interesting solutions, but are still grounded in constraints.
- jiggawatts 2mo agoDolphins sleep with one hemisphere of the brain at a time. Sharks never stop swimming because it’s the only way they can move water over their gills.
- lemonberry 2mo agoThis is only true of some sharks. And of the ones that it is true there's examples of them stopping in places where the current runs enough water through their gills to breath.
- shevy-java 2mo agoSo they are big dreamers! I like that. I mean, we know that mammals with a big brain dream. People can see that when e. g. their dog suddenly seems to run while sleeping.
- usernametaken29 2mo ago> It is particularly fascinating they are able to make these fine-scale adjustments while they are thought to be asleep, a challenge totally alien to terrestrial mammals like us humans. While fascinating it’s not surprising. The vegetative nervous system does a LOT of things on autopilot. I think most people have no idea how many things their body regulates permanently that are actually technically difficult (orientation is particularly hard) and the lower brain stems just wing it. For me this is a classic case of associating intelligence only with conscious awareness when there’s many other ways how we (and other animals) are “clever” even if we don’t know it at first ;)
- whycome 2mo ago“These crazy hairless primates are able to walk across a tightrope by using their ears!” Technically true. And also points to interesting physiological systems that continuously “automate” seemingly complex actions.
- aeve890 2mo agoDon't call it restful if you're not using hyperm... Oh wait wrong restful.