WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: How Long Can Animals Hold Their Breath?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>I'm Lauren vogelbaumb and this is a classic episode of

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<v Speaker 1>the podcast. In this one, we get into the weird

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<v Speaker 1>biology of how some air breathing mammals and reptiles managed

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<v Speaker 1>to hold their breath underwater for minutes or even hours

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<v Speaker 1>at a time. Hey brainstuff, Lauren Vogel bomb here you like,

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<v Speaker 1>most humans can probably hold your breath for about two minutes,

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<v Speaker 1>though in twenty sixteen, Guinness World Records clocked free diver

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<v Speaker 1>a leash Seguravendrol of Barcelona, Spain, holding his breath for

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<v Speaker 1>a little over twenty four minutes, which is of course

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<v Speaker 1>completely wild. Humans aren't built for breath holding. We've got

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<v Speaker 1>other priorities like world domination. If we had spent even

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<v Speaker 1>a little more of our evolutionary history working on holding

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<v Speaker 1>in air instead of making our brains giant and complex,

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<v Speaker 1>we probably could survive without oxygen at least as long

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<v Speaker 1>as the average beaver, which is fifteen minutes. But there

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<v Speaker 1>are lots of air breathing animals that are built for

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<v Speaker 1>breath holding. A sloth can hold its breath for a

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<v Speaker 1>wapping forty minutes. Because it's able to decrease its heart

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<v Speaker 1>rate to about a third of the normal. A sleeping

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<v Speaker 1>sea turtle can hold its breath for up to seven

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<v Speaker 1>hours at a time. A loggerhead turtles often forage underwater

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<v Speaker 1>for around forty minutes in one go, but one study

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<v Speaker 1>of loggerhead activity found that males can voluntarily sustain themselves

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<v Speaker 1>on one breath or sometimes a quick charge up of

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<v Speaker 1>several successive breaths, for around ten hours. One female was

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<v Speaker 1>observed going as long as twenty hours. Some turtles can

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<v Speaker 1>spend all winter long at the bottom of a frozen

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<v Speaker 1>lake in deep hibernation, not using their lungs at all.

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<v Speaker 1>The turtle's secret is that during this period of almost

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<v Speaker 1>complete systems shut down, it does take in a tiny

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<v Speaker 1>bit of oxygen by breathing through its highly vascularized cloaca.

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<v Speaker 1>The kloaca being a single organ found in reptiles, birds, amphibians,

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<v Speaker 1>and even some mammals that serves as the animals exit

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<v Speaker 1>for its u urinary tract and digestive tract, and that's

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<v Speaker 1>also the opening for their reproductive tract. Yes, they pee, poop,

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<v Speaker 1>and have sex with this single organ in turtles with

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<v Speaker 1>chloacal respiration. They can also draw water up into their

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<v Speaker 1>kloaca and absorb oxygen from it, then flush it back out. Turtles, however,

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<v Speaker 1>are ectotherms animals that rely on outside sources for heat.

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<v Speaker 1>It's much easier for ectotherms to go without oxygen than endotherms.

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<v Speaker 1>Like US mammals, we use a lot of oxygen keeping

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<v Speaker 1>our systems running hot, which is why marine mammals like whales, seals,

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<v Speaker 1>and otters are so impressive. They can pull off unbelievably

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<v Speaker 1>long deep dives in order to hunt for food. Take

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<v Speaker 1>Coovi's beaked whale, the deepest diving of all marine mammals,

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<v Speaker 1>and the one scientists think holds the record for the

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<v Speaker 1>endotherm that's achieved the longest breath holding session. These midsized

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<v Speaker 1>whales can dive around ten thousand feet that's about three

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<v Speaker 1>thousand meters, hunting for squid and other deep sea goodies,

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<v Speaker 1>and they can hold their breath for an average of

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<v Speaker 1>sixty seven minutes, with one record dive that lasted one

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<v Speaker 1>hundred and thirty eight minutes before a Coovi's beaked whale

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<v Speaker 1>broke the previous record. A Northern elephant seal was the

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<v Speaker 1>gold medalist caught holding its breath at one hundred and

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen minutes. A sperm whale now comes in third place

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<v Speaker 1>at ninety minutes. That's a long time to go without

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<v Speaker 1>oxygen when you've got an expansive mammalian metabolism to keep up.

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<v Speaker 1>But lots of marine and aquatic mammals make it work

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<v Speaker 1>by slowing their heart rates and redirecting blood away from

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<v Speaker 1>their extremities into their brains, hearts, and muscles. They even

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<v Speaker 1>have special oxygen binding proteins in their muscles that allow

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<v Speaker 1>them to store more oxygen than us land lovers. Today's

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<v Speaker 1>episode is based on the article what animal can hold

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<v Speaker 1>express the longest on houstufforks dot com written by Jesslinshields.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is production by Heart Radio in partnership with

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<v Speaker 1>houstuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Glang. Four

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