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What is the most impressive feat of endurance in the animal kingdom?

by YPB Team

Months without food, oceans crossed without landing, hearts that stop for the winter. Pick the one that sounds least survivable.

  1. Camel — ranked #11
    Camel
    Crosses deserts for a week or more without water, then rehydrates over a hundred litres in minutes.
    1000pts
  2. Bowhead Whale — ranked #22
    Bowhead Whale
    Lives past two hundred years in Arctic water, the longest-lived mammal known.
    1000pts
  3. Arctic Tern — ranked #33
    Arctic Tern
    Flies from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back every year, the longest annual migration on earth.
    862pts
  4. Emperor Penguin — ranked #44
    Emperor Penguin
    Males stand through the Antarctic winter balancing an egg on their feet, fasting for over two months.
    862pts
  5. Wood Frog — ranked #55
    Wood Frog
    Freezes solid each winter, heart stopped, and thaws back to life in spring.
    764pts
  6. Bar-tailed Godwit — ranked #66
    Bar-tailed Godwit
    Holds the record for the longest non-stop bird flight, Alaska to New Zealand without landing once.
    647pts
  7. Brown Bear — ranked #77
    Brown Bear
    Spends up to half the year in a den without eating, drinking or urinating, and loses about a third of its body weight doing it.
    647pts
  8. Naked Mole-Rat — ranked #88
    Naked Mole-Rat
    Survives eighteen minutes without oxygen by switching its metabolism to run on fructose.
    647pts
  9. Monarch Butterfly — ranked #99
    Monarch Butterfly
    Migrates thousands of miles to Mexican fir forests over several generations, none of which has made the trip before.
    503pts
  10. Sperm Whale — ranked #1010
    Sperm Whale
    Dives past 2,000 metres and holds its breath for over an hour hunting squid in the dark.
    503pts
  11. Pronghorn — ranked #1111
    Pronghorn
    Sustains sixty kilometres an hour for miles, built for a predator that went extinct ten thousand years ago.
    503pts
  12. Tardigrade — ranked #1212
    Tardigrade
    Survives boiling, freezing, desiccation and the vacuum of space by shutting its metabolism almost entirely off.
    0pts
  13. Sockeye Salmon — ranked #1313
    Sockeye Salmon
    Swims hundreds of miles upstream without feeding to spawn in the gravel it hatched in, then dies.
    0pts
  14. Albatross — ranked #1414
    Albatross
    Stays at sea for years at a stretch, sleeping on the wing and circling the Southern Ocean.
    0pts
  15. Alpine Marmot — ranked #1515
    Alpine Marmot
    Hibernates eight months of the year at altitude, waking every couple of weeks just to shiver warm again.
    0pts

#Nature45#Science25#Animals43#Records11

Comments

Half a year in a den without eating or drinking, against the Arctic tern's migration: https://youpick.best/articles/bear-ranked-many-ways

YP
ypb-team·9h ago·
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