They require a lot of water to do so… and it can lead to dehydration. But then, how can whales get their water? Baleen whales do swallow a bit of water when they feed because they engulf large quantities of food krill or fish at a time and end up ingesting some seawater in the process. How could they consume seawater and not get dehydrated like us? Short answer: they do not drink voluntarily it and they can filter seawater salt efficiently.
Whales whether they are toothed whales or baleen whales do not voluntarily ingest water. At least not that we really know of. By transforming their food into the water. Metabolic water is what we call the water that comes from breaking down the food fat, protein, and carbohydrates. Fat is the preferred nutrient to break down since it produces the most water per gram. Also, whales do not sweat so they do not waste precious water. If whales ingest seawater, it should not be a big deal because their kidneys are super-efficient at filtering their blood.
Therefore, if you drink salt water the high levels of sodium will drive water out of your system when you need it to stay, causing you to become severely dehydrated.
The loops of henle are another part in which right before the fluid is carried to the bladder the body has a chance to reabsorb some water. Humans rely on salt to do this, so it is still somewhat of a mystery as to how whales do this without reabsorbing massive amounts of salt.
Humans also lose water in lots of ways that whales do not such as sweat and even breathing. Whales have the advantage of living in water and therefore do not have the need to sweat and they obviously do not breath in the same way we do so they lose less water. Another advantage is that the foods that they eat, unlike the ones humans are drawn to, have virtually no salt in them which prevents them from putting any additional strain on their kidneys. During digestion one of the by-products is water so when eating their prey their bodies are able to absorb the water content from the breakdown process.
This is called a metabolic breakdown and humans do this too! Sea lions and other similar mammals are thought to use the same super kidney process to excrete extra salt while retaining the maximum amount of water. As resources grow, the public can continue to learn more about whales and other sea creatures. The interest has always been there, but technology is just now starting to catch up. Since their bodies need water to survive, scientists believe it's reasonable to assume that whales do drink sea water.
An adult blue whale takes up to 10, gallons of water into her mouth at one time while she's eating. She doesn't drink all that water, though; the baleen in the whale's mouth filters the food and the whale pushes most of the water out. The salt content in whales' blood and other body fluids is about one-third as salty as sea water, similar to that of other mammals.
That means when the whale drinks salt water, her kidneys must get rid of all that excess salt. The whale's kidneys are built for this job. They are super-sized, capable of filtering large amounts of water and separating most of the salt.
They also have extra long tubes to hold large quantities of the salt-concentrated urine, which is then excreted. Other sea mammals seem to have similar kidney function, capable of filtering out large amounts of salt, whereas land animals and humans do not. Whales don't get all the water their bodies need by drinking sea water. They also get water from their food.
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