4
Animals Who Can Survive a Year Without Food
“...1. Snakes
Snakes
have only been around for about 100 million years, but they already comprise
about half of all reptile species. This shows how amazingly successful they’ve
become at surviving & adapting... They are very efficient when it comes to
using available resources, & scientists have known for a while that some
snake species could survive for up to 2 years without a meal...
‘Snakes
are very evolutionarily successful,’ University of Arkansas researcher Marshall
McCue said...
Snakes,
as cold-blooded animals, or ectotherms, gather heat from their environment,
& can control their body’s thermostat to a certain degree. Ectotherms don’t
need to eat regularly to warm their bodies- &, thus, save an enormous
amount of energy that warm-blooded animals cannot.
2. Crocodiles
In a
similar vein to snakes, the crocodiles’ ectotherm status is a huge factor in
its long-term survival without food... These animals have outlived the
dinosaurs & are the best freshwater predators in the world... they have few
natural predators, strong jaw muscles that can crush cast iron, & can
survive injuries like torn off limbs.
As for
going without a meal, though, it all comes back to the metabolism. A
crocodile’s metabolism is so evolved that its body uses & stores nearly the
entirety of the food it consumes. They can regularly go for months without
food- & in extreme situations, crocodiles can live off their own tissue for
up to 3 years.
Another
interesting fact about crocodile eating habits is that their stomachs are more
acidic than any other vertebrate. Thus, they can digest bones, horns, &
shells. In fact, those pieces act as “gizzard stones” to help grind up coarse
food.
3. Lungfish
African
lungfish can go without food & water for 3 to 5 years- in suspended
animation, that is. They are ready & prepared so that when water becomes
available, they wake up. This adaptation is especially useful in habitats where
there is seasonal drought. African & South American lungfish, for instance,
burrow themselves into the mud each year & wait for the rain to return.
In
suspended animation, animals enter a state of torpor, which is effectively a
lighter hibernation. And that slows down their internal clocks until more
beneficial conditions appear. Changes in physiology allow lungfish to slow
their metabolism to as little as 1/60th of their normal metabolic rate.
...The
lungfish’s protein waste during suspended animation is converted from ammonia
to a less toxic urea.
Lungfish
can live for a long time, too. One lungfish at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago
was part of a collection from 1933, until it was euthanized in 2017 due to
health problems.
4. Olm
Unlike
most amphibians, the olm eats, sleeps & breeds underwater. Delightfully,
their existence was first recorded in 1689 by a local naturalist in Slovenia,
Valvasor, who reported that olms were washing up from underground waters after
heavy rains. Local people believed that they were a cave dragon’s offspring,
which led to even more rumors.
Olms
have lived in the caves of Slovenia & Croatia for more than 20 million
years. These creature are mostly blind, & though they can detect the
presence of light, they hunt with other enhanced senses.
The
olm’s resistance to long-term starvation is another result of living
underground. Since the arrival of food can’t necessarily be counted on, these
animals have adapted to eat large amounts of food when available- & then
store those nutrients in the liver as large deposits of lipids & glycogen.
That
way, when food is scarce, olms can reduce their activity & metabolic rate.
In extreme situations, olms can also reabsorb their own tissues. Controlled
experiments have shown that an olm can survive up to 10 years without food...”
Laura
Burge
July
23/ 2017
care2.com
Cute Critter Pic
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