The only animals that hardly need water to survive

Mahatma Gandhi He went on 14 hunger strikes to demonstrate against British colonialism in India. During one of these peaceful protests he went 21 days without eating or drinking. small sips of water.

Gandhi’s thin body may have adapted to functioning on very little water through hunger strikes.

But in this sense it should not be imitated because no one can survive more than three to five days without drinking water. Doctors also recommend it drink at least 2 liters of liquids a dayof which 1.6 liters must be water, according to the prestigious Mayo Clinic.

Like humans, the vast majority of animals need water to live. However, in desert habitatssome species have adapted in such a way that it will be difficult to see them drinking that liquid.

Animals that rarely drink water

He Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) is an arboreal and herbivorous marsupial (it has a pouch to carry its young) that lives in Australia. Called “koala” by European colonizers, it spends almost all day resting and is only active for a few hours at night.

It’s a species threatened with extinctionbecause, unlike the beginning of the colonization of Australia, when there were millions of specimens, now there are between 40,000 and 80,000 according to Australian Koala Foundation (AKF).

The indigenous name of this animal, koala, meant precisely “do not drink”as it gets most of the moisture it needs from the Eucalyptus leaves (some species contain 50% water). However, the AKF reports that, in times of drought, when leaves are drier, koalas can drink water.

The other species famous for obtaining fluids without drinking water (at least for long periods) is the Merriam’s kangaroo rat (Dipodomys merriami) inhabitant of the deserts of North America. He San Diego Natural History Museum reports that it received this name because it can make great leaps to move from place to place and has a small pouch on its cheeks that it uses as a food reserve.

Kangaroo rats eat almost exclusively seeds of desert and grassland plants. Since then they rarely drink water they obtain liquid through metabolic processes (metabolic water). For example, consuming 100 g of food gives you 60 ml of water.

The characteristics of its waterproof skin also contribute to this behavior. which prevents evaporation through perspiration and its nocturnal habits, similar to those of the koala. Additionally, their urine is very concentrated and their feces are very dry.