Discover

'Swimming' is the ability to move through water's surface while partially or totally submerged in it and due to this submersion, in a lax sense the ability to maintain oneself afloat can be included in the definition.
Swimming is an activity that is useful and recreational for many animal species. It occurs for bathing, fishing, travelling, cooling, and avoiding enemies. An individual's ability to swim can be judged by speed, or duration before drowning.
Humans often learn to swim in formal swimming lessons. Roughly, 70% of the body is water; while the lungs are filled with air, the body is slightly less dense than the surrounding water, which exerts a buoyant force on it. Human swimming involves the use of all four limbs differently from the way they are used during walking.^[1] Those with less body fat, and a high center of gravity, have a tougher time staying afloat.^[2] The most efficient swimming techniques involve submerging the nose and mouth in water, posing challenges for swimming and breathing simultaneously. People generally cannot swim comfortably without experience or practice, and have on many occasions drowned, often due to panic. Children generally do not swim independently until around 4 years of age.^[3]
Drowning is the second leading cause of death among Canadian children aged 1-4 years old.

Contents

Other animals

Apes

Camels

Cats

Horses

Elk

Dogs

Rabbits

Guinea pig

Elephants

Snakes

Mice

References

Other animals

Animals with lungs have an easier time floating than those without. Almost all mammals can swim by instinct. Bats, kangaroos, moles and sloths can swim, despite their rather strange shapes. The few exceptions include apes and possibly giraffes. Land birds can swim or float for at least some time. Ostriches, cassowaries and tortoises can swim.

Apes

Gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, and at least some gibbons are among the few mammals which lack the instinctive ability to swim, although they can wade upright in water. There are reports that siamang can swim. There are numerous reports of apes in zoos falling and drowning in water moats without any struggle. Humans, similarly, do not swim instinctively. In contrast, many monkeys can naturally swim and some, like the proboscis monkey and crab-eating macaque, swim regularly.

Camels

Although there is speculation to the contrary, a number of eyewitnesses have confirmed that camels, including Dromedaries and Bactrians, can indeed swim. There is not much deep water in their natural habitats, so swimming is very unnatural.

Cats

Although most cats hate water, adult cats are good swimmers. Tigers and some individual jaguars are the only cats that will go into water readily, though other big cats, including lions, have been observed swimming. A few domestic cat breeds also like swimming, such as the Turkish Van.

Horses

Horses are very powerful swimmers.

Elk

Elk are very powerful swimmers as well, and can travel long distances in the water. ^[4]

Dogs

The method of swimming used by dogs is known as the dog paddle. Some breeds of dog swim recreationally. Umbra, a world record-holding dog, can swim 4 miles (6.4 km) in 73 minutes, placing her in the top 25% in human long-distance swimming competitions.^[5]

Rabbits

Given proper motivation, both domestic and wild rabbits can swim. Domestic rabbits are sometimes trained to swim as a circus attraction. A wild rabbit is known to have attacked even a United States President via swimming on at least one occasion, when the animal was threatened in its natural habitat and swam angrily towards Jimmy Carter's boat.^[6]

Guinea pig

The Guinea pig (or cavy) is noted as having an excellent swimming ability, though domestically-kept cavies rarely are given the opportunity to.^[7]

Elephants

Elephants can swim quite well. Although they float, they become almost completely submerged and use their trunks like snorkels. They have been observed swimming to islands off the coast of India, and it has been proposed that they were able to swim from India to Sri Lanka before the island was inhabited by humans. Loggers who use elephants in Southeast Asian countries like Thailand will have their elephants swim from island to island. Baby elephants especially love to swim.^[8]
Elephants have been recorded swimming 24km off the coast of Kenya

Snakes

Many species of snakes are aquatic and live their entire lives in the water, but all known terrestrial snakes are excellent swimmers as well. Large snakes such as pythons and anacondas spend the large majority of their time in the water; their skeletons are not able to support their body weight well on dry land.

Mice

Mice can swim quite well, despite not naturally having to. They do panic when placed in water, but many lab mice are used in the Morris water maze, a test to measure learning. When mice swim, they use their tails like flagella and kick with their legs.

References

1. http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/oct98/908233991.Zo.r.html
2. http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mcamelswim.html
3. http://www.cps.ca/english/statements/IP/IP03-01.htm
4. http://www.flickr.com/photos/arabella/715829503/
5. http://www.sdogv.com/swim.html
6. http://www.newsoftheodd.com/article1021.html
7. The Biology and Medicine of Rabbits and Rodents, , John E., Harkness, Williams & Wilkins, , ISBN 0-683-03919-9
8. http://www.upali.ch/swim_en.html