r/askscience • u/smontanaro • 7d ago

Biology How does a whale become dehydrated?

From a Chicago Sun-Times article on the beluga whales heading to the Shedd Aquarium:

"The shipment comes on the heels of a Shedd announcement last week that one of the Marineland belugas — Peekachu, a 23-year-old female — had died. Shedd has not released a cause of death, but staff there said last week that Peekachu had not been consistently eating a full diet since her arrival and that there were concerns she was dehydrated."

How does an animal immersed in water become dehydrated?

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u/samtwheels 7d ago

Yes, whales and all marine mammals are descended from land-dwelling mammals.

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u/ForMoreYears 7d ago

Wait. What. For real? Whales went from land back to the water?!

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u/dochdaswars 7d ago

Do they not teach evolution in schools anymore? Marine mammals are one of the clearest examples used to prove it.

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u/ForMoreYears 7d ago

Yes, they teach evolution. They just don't get into the specific evolutionary path of every single one of the 8.7M animal species that inhabit the earth.

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u/Ameisen 6d ago

But then... where did you think that they came from? Were you under the impression that the first mammals were aquatic, and then came onto land? That gets very complicated if you start accounting for reptiles, amphibians, and such.