Keep reading to find out more about this, as well as why penguins will drink sea water, and what else they can drink too! This really is a bit of a trick question, as technically penguins do not actually turn or convert saltwater into freshwater. This actually goes against a lot of the misinformation I found when researching the answer to the question of how do penguins turn saltwater into freshwater. Rather they have a very clever way of removing the salt or sodium chloride. Interestingly, they are not the only marine birds that can do this.
Due to spending a large amount of time both in and around water, marine birds will inevitably take in large amounts of saltwater. As penguins do not pee or urinate, they need to find another way to get rid of the salt that they take in from the sea water.
Like I said, penguins will drink a large amount of seawater. Sometimes this will be due to simply spending a lot of time swimming in the ocean, and sometimes because this is the only water available for them to drink. I guess it has the same sort of result, just technically slightly different. The key answer to the question of how do penguins turn saltwater into freshwater lies in something called the supraorbital gland.
This is a nasal gland found in penguins, and also in many other marine birds as well. In humans, and other mammals, the kidneys do the heavy lifting when it comes to filtering out salt or sodium chloride, which can then be passed as urine. In penguins, it is the supraorbital gland that does this job.
This supraorbital gland in penguins is found just above the eye, and is often a pinkish color. Doing this allows a penguin to survive long periods in saltwater. Penguins can often look like they have runny noses. Not surprising as they live in such cold conditions you may think?
This would make sense, but is not the reason why they have what looks like a runny nose. They are specifically built for living in cold, harsh conditions. So why do penguins look like they have runny noses?
This is really to do with the process of filtering out the salt in the water they ingest. This will be in liquid form, and so gives the appearance of a runny nose. Penguins can and do also sneeze this out! OK Set preferences. Which animal can turn saltwater into freshwater? Very interesting and informative trivia! I never knew this fact. Apr 6, AM. Ron Jobel. Read your explanation, then the question, notice a disconnect. Apr 7, AM. Rob Farr. Interesting question but a little misleading according to your explanation.
Apr 6, PM. John McLardie. Even the explanation infers the opposite. They filter the salt out. Yet another example of a poor question. Needs to be removed. Apr 10, AM. Jun 25, AM. Cheryl McMeekin. The only logical answer would be a penguin. May 4, PM. Apr 30, PM. No need to remove the question. Apr 29, AM. Energy and the technology to desalinate water are both expensive, and this means that desalinating water can be pretty costly. All seabirds drink seawater — yet birds have less efficient kidneys than mammals, and so excess salt is even more toxic to them than to us.
Seabirds cope with this by using specialised salt glands next to their eye sockets. Skip to content Common questions.
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