What do penguins drink when they live in an environment without fresh water?

As one of the oldest swimming birds, penguins have always fascinated many scientists.

First of all, there have been a lot of studies on their eating, drinking, defecating and urinating. We have previously talked about the special way of defecation of penguins.

And they only eat a few kinds of things, such as Antarctic krill, small fish and the like.

There is another important question: what do penguins drink?

As we all know, water is the source of life, and the survival of all living things is basically inseparable from water.

But in the snowy Antarctica, there is only snow around except for sea water. Is it possible to quench thirst by eating snow?

You know what, penguins really do chew snow, but this will cause them to lose a lot of heat, which is obviously very deadly in the cold Antarctica, so such situations are extremely rare.
Well, looking around, it seems that the only thing I can drink is sea water...

However, seawater is a little special. Compared with the fresh water we drink, the salt content of seawater is very high. Normal people will only become more thirsty the more they drink and lose more water. If they force themselves to drink it, they will only die of thirst faster.

Since the kidneys of most organisms have limited capacity and cannot maintain a balance between the salt concentration in urine and the salt concentration in seawater, after drinking seawater, the amount of urine your body needs to produce is far greater than the amount of seawater you drink, but your body does not have enough capacity to excrete the salt ingested by the seawater you drink.

If you drink more seawater, the ratio of salt and water in your body will gradually become unbalanced, dehydration will become more serious, and in severe cases it may even be fatal!

So no one can drink sea water to quench thirst...

Humans can't do this, but penguins can.

This penguin has a gland called the supraorbital gland in its body, which is an incredible "magic weapon". It is precisely because of its existence that penguins are not afraid of drinking sea water.

This supraorbital gland is located above the penguin's eyes. Its function is similar to that of the kidneys in the human body. Whenever the penguin's blood circulates through the supraorbital gland, excess salt will be filtered out.

Its capacity is much stronger than that of the kidneys, and the amount of work done by one pair of kidneys is equivalent to that of seven pairs of kidneys.

Perhaps you have the opportunity to see a little unknown liquid flowing out of the small nostrils on the penguin's beak. This is not because the penguin is too cold and has frozen nose and runny nose, but it is just a solution of excess salt excreted from their body.

However, even though the Penguin has the help of the "magic weapon", it cannot do whatever it wants. After all, everything has a limit.

Many penguins know their own limitations, so they won't go out of their way to drink sea water.

Penguins mainly replenish water by eating. The seawater they drink into their stomachs is usually the result of their hunting for food in the sea.

However, whether drinking sea water or chewing snow, it is somehow in line with the penguin's cute temperament.