I’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.
There'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.
Why 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.
It 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.
Brine 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.
I 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?
In fact desert cats kidneys are so efficient that supposedly they can survive without directly consuming water. Subsist exclusively on the water from their prey.
Incredibly 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.
> 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.
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 80.2 ms ] threadThis 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.
It splits the sodium chloride in the water into chlorine and sodium hydroxide so you don't have to keep buying solid chlorine tablets.
For the electrolysis to work, it needs bout 3000ppm to 5000ppm of salt, for a pool this could be hundreds of pounds of salt.
As an aside, the ocean is about 35000 ppm salt so this is about 1/10th the saltiness of the ocean.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semnopithecus
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.
> 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.
> 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.
Direct link to the critter photo: https://nachrichten.idw-online.de/image/399151/screen
DW Online: Yes