How Can Animals Drink Water From Dirty Ponds And Not Get Sick?

Forests are not usually teeming with water bodies. In other words, there are only a handful of lakes, ponds, or other small bodies of water that quench the thirst of a lot of animals that live in nearby wildlife areas. As animals repeatedly drink water from the same source or drink water with bacterial profiles that are not drastically different from each other, their bodies tend to develop a sort of resistance to such ‘bad’ water. Their immune system recognizes certain bacteria through repeated encounters with them and becomes more effective in dealing with them.

Moreover, most mammals have a finely developed sense of smell, which helps them determine to a certain extent whether a water body is bacteriologically active. When they encounter such a body, they often simply pass on the idea of drinking from it.

#dirtywater #immunesystem #howdotheydoit

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[adam-k]

The important bit here is that animals generally live half as long in the wild than in captivity. If they get weakened from illness injury or age those pathogens, parasites will absolutely kill wild animals.

[JPMgeo]

This video neglects to say that most animals do have a host of waterborne parasites from their drinking water. They just live with them.

[Zzues]

After working for a water district and in the water quality department I always wondered, how many years longer did humans live once fresh water was able to be provided?

[minotaurbison]

I drank from creeks my whole childhood, never thought much of it. Then one day while hiking through western NC, I stopped to drink out of a small spring... little did I know that a handful of tourists saw me drinking from the spring and did the same.... well... the next day I was greeted by a ranger who asked me if I was ok. I was more than a little puzzled by his question and I guess he saw the look in my eyes and he then explained that they had just had to haul out 9 very sick people who had drank from a contaminated spring... Giardia was the blame he thought... .either way, I was fine... still seems wild to me, but they said they saw "another man" drinking from the same spring and that's why the ranger was out looking... I told him that I had indeed drank the water, but apparently I was either immune or didn't drink enough.... found out later from my mother that my first bout with Giardia was when I was 6 years old... IDK, what ever it was, I never got sick and have wondered if it was because I had grew up in the backwoods and drinking from creeks/springs was normal.

[thorick]

When I was a kid, my Mom once said to me that: "being too clean can be bad for you". This ran against all that everyone else around me said about the importance of being clean at all times. I guess she had a valid point.

[aroundandround]

I remember asking this question in third grade and my teacher said “antibodies”.

[qkchen]

This is interesting. It’s analogous to when traveling abroad and if you drink from the local water source, you get stomach sickness. Until your body adapts to it.

[klingoncowboy]

You observe a similar thing in what animals eat. When cattle switch from winter feed to summer pasture they will often show signs of mild intestinal distress while their bodies and gut flora adjust to the richer food source and potentially new bacteria and fungus exposure. When it is a regular seasonal change this is not a big deal but it can be fatal if the food source in dramatically different without allowing an adjustment.

I remember learning about how the Northwest Mounted Police (now the RCMP) had problems when they started because the horses they brought west were used to tame strains of grass common in Ontario. Many horses got sick and died when exposed to the wild native grasses that were common in the prairies without a allowing a period of transition where they had a mix of grass and Ontario hay.

[TheNaughtysheriff]

I don’t think they can tell us their stomach hurts

[averageguy]

It makes sense that living in a sanitized environment leads to acute allergic reactions, like peanuts, pollen, etc.

[onenikkione]

I went hiking in southern Arizona and thank goodness it had rained the day before. Luckly, the area I hiked in had a decent size stream, waist high, that was flowing, as I didn't bring enough water and started over-heating (hyperthermia + dehydration) and had to get in the stream & drink from it. I didn't get ill or contact any pathogens (it's been over 20 years). That stream saved my life.

[JohnnyAngel]

I always wondered how animals could drink water where buffalo, crocodiles, and hippos defecate.

[case]

My mother was quite amused when my pediatrician told her that keeping
me dirt-free was not a good thing.

[beepbeep]

George Carlin said it best!!! Our Immune Systems need PRACTICE!!! There is something to be said about how some of us drank out of a Garden Hose growing up and just washed off a scratch, with maybe some Iodine and a Bandage included…then went back outside to play the rest of the day!!!

[steveallen]

Similar how visitors to India need to be much more careful with water consumption than the locals do as they have developed immunity

[mstr]

"Why don't they get sick" - Those who do are dead...

[apuzal]

this is a pretty high quality video from a small channel, i love it. Keep up the good content

[viperaputakeyteaparyou]

They eat raw meat covered in filth, bodily fluids, and flies. That gastric acid can probably kill anything on the spot 😅

[yvmmbxc]

What the video touches on slightly is that thousands of animals died before they developed a resistance to their not so clean water sources.

[buckyyyb]

I was not expecting the comments of this video to be full of people admitting to still drinking very gross water, and not believe in handwashing. This is weird