Water games for non-swimmers. Cruel experiments have shown that most mammals can swim Do all animals know how to swim

Swimming is a very interesting way of transportation. Some argue that all animals have the ability to stay on the water. Others believe that swimming is not available to many. This issue has not yet been resolved by scientists. Which animals do not know how to swim, and which ones are excellent swimmers, we will figure it out in this publication.

Do all inhabitants of the deep waters know how to swim?

It is believed that if an animal lives in water, then nature itself gives it the ability to swim. However, this is not quite true. For example, in the depths of the oceans there is a bat fish. She, outwardly practically no different from other fish, moves along the bottom, using her pectoral fins as legs. Therefore, the question of which animals cannot swim can be answered with confidence that it is a bat.

But if someone begins to argue that crayfish and lobsters cannot swim, then they will be wrong. These arthropods can, on rare occasions, swim using their tail. Although crustaceans still prefer to crawl.

Are cats, rabbits and hares good swimmers?

When asked which animals cannot swim, some answer that cats, rabbits and hares. Only such an opinion is deeply erroneous. Cats, for example, can swim, and quite well. True, not all representatives of this genus like to be in the water. But cat breeds are known for which bathing and swimming is a real pleasure. These are the Turkish Vans. They say that Siamese cats will not refuse to swim.

Rabbits can hold their own for a while and even move through the water. But their skills are only short-lived. So you can’t call them excellent swimmers.

But can hares swim if they look so much like rabbits? Eyewitnesses say that yes, they not only know how, but also use their abilities with pleasure. One of the members of the expedition in the Northern Archipelago describes how two curious hare hares swam across a rather cold sea strait, the width of which exceeded three hundred meters. After examining the island, they decided to return to their mainland, which they immediately did.

Many people are confused by the story about grandfather Mazai and hares. Like, if they are such excellent swimmers, why did the long-eared forest jumpers have to be saved during the flood? In fact, if the hares did not know how to swim at all, they would not have reached the logs and wood chips floating on the water. But you need to understand that the water in the spring in the ice drift is very cold, the animals freeze in it and drown from hypothermia. Therefore, they try to escape on logs, stumps and branches.

What are land bird swimmers?

Here it is rather difficult to answer. Almost all birds love to wallow in a puddle. But no one tried to make them swim. There are certain types of land birds that can and love to swim, for example, the dipper from the passerine genus. But most birds cannot swim.

But the well-known domestic chicken, which, according to popular belief, is afraid of water, perfectly keeps on its surface and even moves, although not as fast as geese or ducks.

Animals that can swim - vivat!

As practice shows, almost all animals, once in a certain situation, try to survive. And almost everyone can swim. Even such a large land mammal as an elephant does not lag behind them.

It is naive to ask if pigs can swim. It is enough just to look at the proposed photos.

Floating camels? Nonsense!

There are probably more people who can swim than those who can't. Although the question of which animals cannot swim, today many argue that these are camels and giraffes.

Some even give out a fictitious theory that the humps of these animals are filled with water, which will definitely pull them down. Therefore, a camel, turning over on its back, will not be able not only to swim, but also to stay on the water.

But these are all inventions of ignorant people. Camels are excellent swimmers, although in natural conditions in their historical homeland they practically do not manage to see the river. Eyewitnesses say that even small camels are excellent swimmers. And at all, these graceful "ships of the desert" do not roll over on their backs. And why would they do it? After all, in their humps they have not water, but fat, and, as you know, it is lighter than water.

Virtual giraffes can swim too

The fact that this long-necked mammal loves to wallow in the water has been proven in practice. But to watch how giraffes swim, so far no one has succeeded.

But scientists made a digital copy of the animal and tried to mimic the process - they succeeded! So, purely theoretically, these beauties will be able to swim.

Why should swimming be such a generalized behavior in mammals, even those that don't need to swim? Fish believes this is a side effect of mammalian anatomy. “Mammals have decent-sized lungs that give them a bit of buoyancy,” he explains. “Fur is also important, but it becomes less important as the mammal gets bigger.” This, together with the mammalian fat that builds up under the skin, makes them suitably buoyant.

“All things considered, mammals tend to float,” Fish says, “and if you can float, you can swim.”

So we can assume that every mammal can swim? One treatise from 1963 on the delightfully esoteric topic of "the swimming potential of the golden hamster" states: "It is well known that most wild mammals can swim." Most, but not all. From the same literature, it turns out that there are two groups of non-swimmer mammals: giraffes and monkeys.

Giraffes definitely don't look like good swimmers. With such odd anatomy, it seems pretty obvious why they can't swim. No one, however, has built a water tank for giraffes, but thanks to a pair of inquisitive paleontologists, this may not be necessary.

Intrigued by the numerous references in the literature, science writer and paleontologist Darren Naish set out to test the hypothesis that giraffes cannot swim. "I am extremely skeptical of such claims, given that animals that do not admit to being able to swim - like giant tortoises, pigs, rhinos and camels - swim normally or even very well," he wrote on his Tetrapod Zoology blog.

Thinking about an experiment that would be ethical and dry, Naish turned to Donald Henderson of the Royal Tyrrell Paleontological Museum in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada. Henderson specializes in creating computer models of animals, both extinct and living. “Initially, I started building these models for locomotion and body weight, but then I realized that buoyancy could also be considered,” he explains. It was lucky that Henderson had a ready-made model of a giraffe, so the researchers decided to finally dot the i and find out whether giraffes can swim or not.

“We found that the giraffe could swim and its head would be close to the surface, but it would have to work really hard to keep its nostrils open,” says Henderson, explaining that the animal's rather long limbs would also make it rather clumsy in the water. “It's possible that a giraffe can swim, but it's going to be strenuous swimming, so it's no wonder they don't like it. This could lead to the idea that giraffes cannot swim.”


The waterfowl abilities of the monkeys were tested in a less humane way. Ethnologist Robert Yerkes told a story from the turn of the 20th century in which William Hornaday, founder of the Bronx Zoo, decided to bathe an orangutan:

“Bringing him to the surface, I let him go, against his will. Did he swim? Hardly. He rolled over in an instant and his head sank as if filled with lead instead of brain."

This cruel experiment, unfortunately, is no exception. Yerkes himself describes throwing young chimpanzees into the water to see if they would sink or swim. “Without exception, they tried to resist and quickly drowned,” he writes. For this reason, ditches are often used in zoos to keep monkeys from escaping.

Hornaday describes that "rather than kicking and punching vigorously as other animals do, their useful limbs simply stuck straight out of the body like four sticks and moved slowly and feebly." Obviously, something about the great primates prevents them from swimming in a coordinated manner.

“They will tell you that chimpanzees can't swim because they don't float,” says Renato Bender, a research fellow at the Institute for Human Evolution at the Witwatersrand in South Africa. "It's not about surfacing, it's about swimming properly."

His point is that most mammals swim instinctively because they use the same gait they use on land, Hamish suspected. "If you're a quadruped, when you swim, you're essentially using the movement pattern you already have, just applying it to the water," Fish says. This is why swimming tetrapods tend to swim like dogs.


Noting that kangaroos can run into the water when pursued by predators, George Wilson of the Australian National University in Canberra found that when red kangaroos, who had no prior swimming experience, entered the pool, they began to swim like a dog - not at all like that, how they usually go.

He concluded that this may "represent a return to earlier times" in their evolutionary history. Even among the most admirably adapted aquatic creatures, the picture will be about the same. “The dolphin is essentially jumping underwater, only without legs,” Fish says.

But monkeys are also four-legged. Why doesn't this logic apply to them?

Back in 2013, Bender and his wife Nicole, a medical researcher at the University of Bern, Switzerland, challenged the conventional wisdom by filming a chimpanzee named Cooper and an orangutan named Suriya paddling happily in swimming pools. These were the first videos of great apes swimming.

Oddly enough, scientists believe this behavior explains why monkeys don't have the innate ability to swim.

These monkeys were not born with their powers; they had to learn. Former swim teacher Bender noted a key difference in the way they moved: less doggy style, more breaststroke.


This change in style, in his opinion, is not accidental, but instead hints at a deep evolutionary history. As the ancestors of these monkeys adapted to life in trees, they not only lost their need for water, but also modified their neuromotor systems and anatomy to make them more suitable for tree swinging.

These changes led to the fact that the ancient monkeys lost not only the desire, but also the ability to swim like a dog. On the rare occasions when monkeys learn to swim, the increased mobility of their limbs as a result of their above ground lifestyle makes breaststroke a more natural style.

It turns out that swimming is not only a happy side effect of buoyancy and four limbs, natural selection actively supports this skill in all other mammals. Fish, however, thinks it's far-fetched: "Mammals lost their swimming skills in the Devonian when the fish started to come out of the water," he explains.

Nevertheless, Audrey's hypothesis was partly correct. Swimming seems to play an unexpected role in the ecology of some mammalian species, whether it's overclocking prehistoric elephants or escaping predators in kangaroos. Perhaps this is a more important behavior than previously thought.

And there is another mammal for whom swimming has become something special in general, another non-swimmer primate: man.

There is a widespread belief that babies have an innate ability to swim. This is not true. Although babies do hold their breath when immersed in water, this should not be considered swimming. Breath holding is part of the mammalian diving reflex, a set of physiological changes resulting from submersion in water that is present in all mammals but is most highly developed in marine species. Like Cooper and Suriya, people need to learn how to swim.


Being intelligent primates, we have learned to do this quite well. The world's top divers and Olympic swimmers are capable of feats unthinkable by any other land mammal, and people around the world are learning to swim to work, play and simply enjoy the process.

Our proximity to water compared to other apes is one of the features that contributed to the so-called aquatic ape hypothesis. According to this idea, many of our defining characteristics (hairlessness, bipedalism, large brains, etc.) are the result of a period in our evolutionary history spent in a semi-aquatic lifestyle.

The aquatic monkey hypothesis has no scientific support, but has gained many adherents. Bender feels that her popularity has stalled serious research on primate interactions with water and the implications it may have had on our behavior and evolution.

"I want people to understand that you need to separate the 'water in human evolution' and the water hypothesis and then start exploring it scientifically," he says. “There is a lot of evidence that chimpanzees and orangutans play with water for hours. Water is very interesting: smart animals find it fascinating, and we are smart animals.”

Water games are not only great entertainment for children and adults while swimming, but also an effective means of hardening and physical development. They contribute to the acquisition and strengthening of good posture. And for those who do not know how to swim, such games will help to overcome the natural fear of water, to cultivate determination. Before playing on the water, it is necessary to warm up the muscles well by doing a set of gymnastic exercises on the shore. This is the rotation of the arms and hands, squats on toes, forward bends, torso turns to the side, exercises imitating the movements of a swimmer.

"Sea battle"

Beginners getting into the water are perhaps most afraid of splashing in the face. And in a fun game, fear is easier to overcome. The players are divided into two teams and line up in two lines waist-deep in water opposite each other. On a signal, the participants, by striking the water with their palms, begin to “shell” the opponents, directing sheaves of spray at them and trying to force them to retreat. The one who turns his back to the opponent is out of the game. It is not allowed to touch each other with hands. The line wins, in which the players will be more persistent and keep a harmonious line to the end.

"Float" and "jellyfish"

These exercises are especially helpful for beginners. They help non-swimmers focus on reaching their goal and overcome their fear of water. Entering the water pop belt, the player takes a deep breath and crouches to the bottom. Then, clasping her knees with her hands, she presses her chin to her chest. If the breath was really deep, then the body, like a float, rises to the surface. Exercise "Medusa" is performed while standing chest-deep in water. Taking a deep breath and leaning forward, you need to lie down freely on the water. The deeper the breath, the easier it is to do the exercise. The one who stays afloat the longest wins.

"Swings" and "rocking chairs"

Players become pairs facing each other in the depth of water - waist-deep and hold hands. First, one takes a deep breath and sinks under the water, leaning back. The second one pulls it towards itself, then inhales deeply and also descends into the water, while the first one at this time rises to the surface.

In the game "Rocking chairs" the players stand with their backs to each other, take hands and alternately leaning forward, lowering their faces into the water and exhaling, they raise each other on their backs. Moreover, the player who is on the surface is not allowed to bend his legs and lift them up.

"Steam engine"

Players in one line stand chest-deep in water. Count on the first or second. On command, all the first numbers squat, plunging headlong into the water and exhaling. Then they return to their original position, and the second numbers do the same. Thus, they, alternately crouching and rising, imitate the operation of a steam engine. On commands: "The smallest!" or "Full speed ahead!" it can work at a faster or slower pace. You can first rehearse the game on the beach.

"Barrings"

The game must be played at a depth to the waist. Two teams of 5 or 6 people are required. The captains stand in front and take each other's hands. All the rest line up behind, clasping each other by the waist. Thus, each team tries to pull the opposing team three steps in their direction. The game stops when one of the teams has managed to do so. If one of the players or the captain unhooked his hands, the team is considered defeated

Games to overcome fear of water

Of course, a game helps a child to cope with unreasonable fears, to master elementary skills.

1. For example, tell the baby that he is a small seal and will now get to know his main home - water. First, the seal needs to learn how to dive into the water. Hold the baby by the hand. The seal takes a deep breath through its mouth, crouches, and dives into the water for a few seconds. Then he rises and exhales. Wiping your face is not allowed! Real seals never wipe their faces. The dive can be repeated. If the baby is not afraid, he can sit under water and longer. Mom or dad is nearby, insure.

2. To consolidate your success, you can arrange water running competitions. Two options for such competitions (so that you and your child have an equal chance of winning):

• An adult enters the water up to his chest, a child - knee-deep, then your opportunities are approximately equal
• The kid moves to a deeper place (the water reaches the middle of the thigh or to the waist), the adult runs next to him in a shallow place: but at the same time on all fours!

3. Not only seals live in the water. You can play kalan and kalanenka. The child sits on the adult's stomach, wraps his legs around his waist, and holds his neck tightly with his hands. An adult sea otter, holding its cub by the back, goes into the water and squats there several times and makes other simple movements. Then he lets go of his calanen, and he clings to the adult himself. You can dance the dance of sea otters in the water, sing a song, splash, have plenty of fun.

4. If the child is afraid to put his face in the water, try to compete with him: who will make more bubbles in the water? Go into the water with him - so that the baby stands in it up to his chest. Participants inhale through their mouths, hold their breath, lower their face into the water up to their eyes and slowly exhale the air to the end. The referee counts the points. You can make several attempts. The winner is a prize.

5. Now you can try to learn how to lower your face into the water completely. To do this, your child turns into a formidable Neptune. Neptune has a whole flotilla: toy ships and boats, purchased and home-made - from everything that floats: foam, nut shells, paper, etc. At the beginning of the game, Neptune puts his chin in the water and actively blows on the surface of the water so that waves form and ships move. Then the sea king begins to make a storm. To do this, he lowers his face into the water with his eyes open and makes an energetic full exhalation.

6. Fence off a small space in shallow water or use a mini-pool. The adult is now a frog, and the baby is a tadpole. The frog should keep its eyes closed and try to locate the tadpole by the splashes and other gurgling sounds. The caught tadpole becomes a frog itself, and the game starts again.

7. Gradually we move on to mastering the ability to stay on the water. Tell the kid that today he will be an unsinkable float. First teach him to take a deep breath. When the child has mastered this, invite him, after inhaling, to dive into the water with his head, curl up there (pressing his head and knees to his chest) and in this position float to the surface. Arrange a little excitement on the water, drive the waves, sprinkle on the “float”. And he floats on the surface of the water.

You and your child can come up with as many such helping games as you like. The main thing is positive emotions when meeting with water, and then fear will recede.

Count

Stand in pairs facing each other. One, crouching, plunges into the water and opens his eyes. Another shows him under water (at a distance of 30-40 cm from the eyes) a different number of fingers. Having risen from the water, the guesser says how many fingers he saw. Then the partner guesses.

Put on a circle

Put a rubber circle in front of you and, after inhaling, plunge into the water so that when you get up, put the circle on your head.

Stand in a pair with your back to each other, putting your hands under your partner's elbows. Each, leaning forward in turn, tears the partner off the bottom, lowers his face into the water and exhales. Being above the water should not bend and raise the legs.

Who will jump higher

Raise your arms to the sides with your palms down. On command, jump up, pushing off the bottom with your feet, while simultaneously moving your hands down into the water, thereby helping to push.

The fastest couple

Break into pairs (first and second numbers) and take a place at the start. The second numbers follow the first.

The fastest trio

Break into threes. Two hold a stick (about a meter long) by the ends, the third, standing behind, by the middle. On a signal, the two extreme ones begin to walk along the bottom forward, the third one lies on the water and works with the crawl legs. The first trio to reach the finish line wins. The result is summed up after three attempts, so that all participants can change places.

torpedoes

Starting position at the finish line for the chest glide. On a signal, take a breath, hold your breath and, strongly pushing off the bottom, slide forward, moving your legs like a crawl. The place where the player stood on the bottom or raised his head to breathe is considered to be the finish line.

Etafeta with a ball

Line up two teams in a column one at a time, 2-3 steps from one another. The distance between the players in the columns is 1 step, the position of the legs is wider than the shoulders. Those standing in front (captains) have a ball in their hands. At the signal of the captain, bend down and pass the ball between the legs to the person standing behind, he passes the ball further. The latter, having received the ball, runs with it to the head of the column, and the game resumes. The team whose captain is the first to stand at the head of the column wins.

Knight Tournament

Divide into two teams, in pairs, taking into account the physical fitness of the players. Each pair is a "horse" and a "rider". The rider sits on the shoulders of his partner, and he presses his legs to himself with his hands. At the signal, the teams begin the single combat. The task of the "horseman" is to throw the enemy off the "horse" into the water. Grabs are allowed only by the hands. The discarded "horseman" together with the "horse" are eliminated from the game.

Riding a dolphin

The players sit on inflatable rubber cushions, circles or balls and, on a signal, begin to move forward, making rowing movements with their hands. The one who reaches the finish line first wins. Those who failed to stay on the "dolphin" are eliminated from the game.

Fight

The players, grabbing the opponent by the torso and arms, try to tear him off the bottom, and then dip him with his head. The winner is the one who wins at least three out of five fights. It is forbidden to hold the enemy under water.

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A popular myth is that some mammals - including camels and pigs - cannot swim. Reviewer found out that this is not so: only one species of mammals can hardly keep afloat.Guess which one.

My girlfriend's grandparents (named Audrey and Hamish) are very inquisitive. They are both very interested in biology, and one day they decided to test Audrey's favorite theory.

"I've always believed that all mammals can, firstly, produce milk and, secondly, swim," she says. "Not at the same time, of course."

And then one day they and their daughters gathered around the pond in the garden, taking their pet guinea pigs with them.

"In case something went wrong, we had a fishing net. We put the pig in the water, and like a dog - if you can say about a guinea pig - swam from one side of the pond to the other."

"So far this is our only experiment," says Hamish.

He believes that since most mammals walk on all fours, they should be able to float instinctively and be able to swim like a dog. But is he right?

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Some mammals are undoubtedly natural swimmers. Whales, fur seals and otters in the process of evolution have acquired the ability to easily move through the water.

Many land mammals can also be called skilled swimmers - dogs, of course, but other domestic animals are not far behind, including sheep and cows.

Even cats are good swimmers, although most of them do not like this process very much.

At the same time, other species have a reputation for being inept swimmers, such as camels. Yes, they are called the ships of the desert, but why do they need the ability to swim if they rarely see water?

It has even been suggested that the elephant's trunk originally acted as a breathing tube while swimming.

From conversations with camel veterinarians and breeders of these animals, it turned out that humpbacked quadrupeds, oddly enough, willingly go into the water that they meet on their way.

This is especially true of the Harai camels, known as the floating camels of Gujarat.

Speaking of pigs, one immediately recalls a poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in which the devil watches a pig swimming down the river, gloatingly expecting that it is about to cut its throat with its sharp hooves.

But this is very unfair to pigs, and the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism will gladly confirm this for you.

On the island of Big Major Key, a colony of seafaring pigs settled there, which has become a real attraction of the archipelago, proudly calling itself the "Official Residence of Swimming Pigs".

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Previously, scientists assumed that elephants, the largest land animals in existence today, could not swim.

If this were the case, biogeographers would have to look for complex explanations for the presence of elephant fossils on islands off the coast of California and China, as well as in the Mediterranean Sea.

In fact, elephants are excellent swimmers, capable of swimming up to 50 km at a time. Scientists even suggest that the elephant's trunk originally served as a breathing tube while swimming.

Even an armadillo, despite having a bulky shell, can float on water by swallowing air and thereby inflating the stomach and intestines, which helps it compensate for its weight.

Well, that's a good start. But there are 5416 known species of mammals in the world. To prove that they all know how to swim, many creatures will have to be thrown into the pond, which will not be at all delighted with this.

"I must say that similar experiments have already been carried out," says Frank Fish, a swimming expert from West Chester University (Pennsylvania, USA).

Nobody managed to evaluate the swimming abilities of absolutely all mammals, however, there were times when for this purpose the animal was simply thrown into the water.

In their 1973 research paper, Ann Dagg and Doug Windsor put 27 species of land animals, from shrews to skunks, into a three-meter-long tank of water and see if they could stay afloat.

Fortunately, everyone could swim, even the bat, which moved "with the help of heavy wing beats, reminiscent of the movements of a person swimming with a butterfly."

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Unfortunately, it was often not enough for scientists to determine whether an animal can swim or not.

The work of Dagg and Windsor mentions the work carried out in the late 50s and 60s. a series of "inhumane experiments in which animals of various species were forced to swim until they were exhausted or died."

Today, fortunately, such experiments are hardly possible. "Ethics are changing, and what was acceptable then is not acceptable now," confirms Fish.

Even a bat swims, moving with the help of heavy wing beats.

Be that as it may, these experiments can serve as confirmation of Audrey's theory, especially when you consider that even such animals as bats, not adapted to life in water, can move on water.

Why is this skill inherent in so many mammals, even those who have no need to swim?

According to Fish, this is a side effect of their anatomical structure.

"Mammals have fairly large lungs, which gives them good buoyancy," he explains. "Hair is also important, but the larger the animal, the less it means to him."

"All these factors allow mammals to float," says Fish. "And if you can float, you can swim."

Does this mean that absolutely all mammals can swim?

One book on the delightfully exotic subject, "The Swimming Ability of the Golden Hamster," dated 1963, states: "It is widely known that most wild mammals can swim."

Most, but not all. It follows from the scientific literature that scientists have agreed that there are two groups of non-swimming mammals: giraffes and higher primates.

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Judging by their appearance, giraffes are clearly not natural swimmers. With such an unusual body structure, it seems quite plausible that this animal is unlikely to be able to stay afloat.

So far, no one has ventured into the gamble of building a water tank the size of a giraffe, but thanks to the curiosity of some paleontologists, this may not be necessary.

Intrigued by the numerous references in the scientific literature to the fact that giraffes cannot swim, scientific author and paleontologist Darren Neish decided to test this hypothesis.

Mammals can float, and if you can float, you can swim

"I am very skeptical of such claims, especially in light of the fact that other animals previously considered unable to swim, including giant tortoises, pigs, rhinos and camels, actually swim well or even very well," he wrote in on his Tetrapod Zoology blog.

To develop an ethical experiment that would not require water, Naish contacted Donald Henderson of the Royal Tyrrell Paleontological Museum in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada.

Henderson specializes in creating computer models of animals, both extinct and preserved to this day.

"Initially, I created these models in order to study the movement of animals and determine their body weight, but then I realized that they could help evaluate swimming abilities as well," he explains.

By a happy coincidence, Henderson already had a finished model of a giraffe, so the scientists decided to finally determine whether a giraffe could float on water.

"We've found that the giraffe will be able to float and its head will be close to the surface, but water will constantly get into the nostrils," says Henderson.

He explains that because of its long limbs, this animal will move very clumsily through the water.

"The giraffe will still be able to swim, but it will be very difficult for him, and I understand why giraffes are not eager to try," he concludes.

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The swimming ability of primates was tested in much less humane ways. Ethologist Robert Yerkes tells a story that happened at the beginning of the 20th century.

William Hornaday, founder of the Bronx Zoo, led a pet orangutan to a stream to bathe.

“Positioning him above the water, I let him go, even though he resisted. Did he swim? Hardly. In the blink of an eye, he turned upside down, and his head went down, as if instead of a brain it was lead,” he writes.

Unfortunately, this cruel experiment is no exception. Yerkes himself describes throwing young chimpanzees into the water to see if they would sink or swim out.

The giraffe can still swim, but it will be very difficult for him

"Without exception, everyone was actively floundering in the water and quickly went under the water," he notes.

This is why zoos often use water ditches to prevent primates from escaping.

Hornaday also wrote that "instead of vigorously swinging his arms and legs, as do other animals, he (orangutan) simply spread them apart, and they stuck out of his body like sticks, which he moved slowly and listlessly."

Obviously, there is something that prevents the great primates from coordinating their movements when swimming.

"Many people think that chimpanzees can't swim because they can't float on water," says Renato Bender, a researcher at the Institute for Human Evolution at the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa). "But that's not the point, it's the technique of swimming."

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In his opinion, most mammals swim instinctively, as they actually make the same movements as on land (as my friend's grandfather suggested).

"When swimming, tetrapods are actually using an already established motor pattern," Fish says. That is why quadrupeds swim like a dog.

George Wilson of the Australian National University in Canberra notes that kangaroos can rush into the water when escaping from predators.

According to his observations, when a large red kangaroo with no swimming experience enters the water, even he swims like a dog, despite the fact that he moves on land by jumping.

The dolphin actually runs underwater, albeit without legs.

He concludes that this may be a "return to the past" of their evolutionary history.

Even the most adapted to the aquatic environment, creatures swim in much the same way. "The dolphin is actually running underwater, albeit without legs," Fish says.

But primates are also tetrapods, so why doesn't this logic work for them?

In 2013, Bender and his wife Nicole, a medical researcher at the University of Bern in Switzerland, challenged the conventional wisdom that primates cannot swim.

They filmed a video of a chimpanzee named Cooper and an orangutan named Suriya swimming across the pools with no problem. This was the first video evidence that higher primates are still able to swim.

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The primates filmed were not able to swim from birth, they had to learn how to do it.

Bender, who had previously worked as a swimming coach, noticed one important feature of their technique: they swam more breaststroke than doggy style.

In his opinion, such differences in swimming technique did not arise by chance, but appeared in the process of evolution.

The ancestors of these primates adapted to life in the trees, and they no longer needed to go into the water, and their nervous and motor systems and anatomical structure underwent changes that allowed them to move more dexterously through the trees.

As a result, the ancient ancestor of primates lost not only the desire, but also the ability to swim like a dog.

The ancient ancestor of primates lost not only the desire, but also the ability to swim like a dog

On rare occasions when primates do learn to swim, due to the increased mobility of their limbs associated with living in trees, it becomes more natural for them to kick off the water with their feet, which is characteristic of breaststroke.

Nevertheless, Audrey's hypothesis is not far from the truth. It turns out that swimming has played an amazing role in the lives of animals, and perhaps this skill is much more important than we thought so far.

It is impossible not to mention the mammal for which swimming has gone far beyond biology - another non-swimming superior primate, man.

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There is a widespread belief that children can swim from birth - perhaps for some it is associated with the famous Nirvana album cover.

However, in reality this is not the case. Babies do hold their breath when submerged in water, but this should not be confused with swimming.

Breath-holding is part of the mammalian diving reflex, that is, a set of physiological changes associated with immersion in water, characteristic of all mammals (and most pronounced in marine species).

Just like Cooper and Surya, our fellow primates, humans have to learn to swim.

But as smarter primates, we've gotten pretty good at it.

The world's best divers and Olympic swimmers set records unthinkable for any other land mammal.

People learn to swim for work and leisure, and for certain cultural reasons.

Our strong, compared to other primates, love of water became one of the traits on the basis of which the so-called aquatic theory arose.

Like our fellow primates, humans have to learn to swim.

It says that many of the defining characteristics of humans (lack of hair, bipedalism, large brains, etc.) were formed during the period of our evolutionary history when we led a semi-aquatic lifestyle.

Despite the fact that the aquatic theory lacks scientific evidence, it has quite a few supporters.

Bender believes its popularity has hindered serious research into the primate's relationship with water and the impact that water may have had on our behavior and evolution.

"I would like people to understand that you need to separate the 'role of water in human evolution' from the aquatic theory, and then start studying it using scientific methods," he says.

"There is a lot of evidence that chimpanzees and orangutans are ready to play with water for hours. Water is of great interest and attracts smart animals, and we are just smart animals," says Bender.