Animals That Are Best at Holding Breath Underwater
Here, you'll find out what animals can stay underwater the longest!
What animals don't need to come up for air? Fish, of course! But no, that’s not what we mean. After all, they have gills and don’t need to go to the surface to breathe. This record is for animals that mostly live in the water but have lungs, like marine mammals, birds and reptiles. They can’t filter oxygen from the water, so they have to surface to breathe in and out. More about lung breathing.
Which Animals Can Hold Their Breath Longest?
| Animal | Category | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Sea Turtles | Reptiles | Up to 7 hours |
| Cuvier's Beaked Whale | Mammal | 3 h 42 min |
| Sperm Whale | Mammal | 2 h |
| Weddell Seal | Mammal | 1 h |
| Marine Iguana | Reptile | 30 min |
| Walrus | Mammal | 30 min |
| Sea Cow | Mammal | 20 min |
| Emperor Penguin | Bird | 18-20 min |
| Dugong | Mammal | 6 min |
| Sea Otter | Mammal | 5 min |
| Orca | Mammal | 2-5 min |
| Polar Bear | Mammal | 2 min |
Who would have thought? At the top are the sea turtles! The Cuvier's beaked whale can stay underwater the longest of all mammals. But birds like the emperor penguin also manage impressive times.
How Can Marine Mammals Stay Underwater for so Long?
- They reduce their heart frequency underwater. In some animals, their heart may beat up to 120 times a minute out of the water but only four to six times a minute under the surface. The heart of a healthy human beats around 60-70 times a minute if you were wondering. Especially sporty people can have a heartbeat of 40 beats per minute.
- They have more cells, that transport oxyge.
- They have up to three times more blood than humans.
- They mostly store oxygen in their muscles and blood.
As a comparison: the world record for free diving is 11 minutes and 35 seconds (in free diving, the diver doesn’t take an oxygen bottle with them underwater). This record was set by Stéphane Mifsud, from France. He stayed underwater for almost 12 minutes on one breath! His lung capacity is around 2.7 gallons (10.5 liters). This is almost twice as much as a normal human. You can only achieve this with years of training.
Lung Capacity
| Animal | Lung capacity |
|---|---|
| Mouse | 0.033 ounces (1 ml) |
| Rat | 0.33 ounces (10 ml) |
| Human | 1.5 gallons (6 liters) |
| Blue Whale | 1,320 gallons (5,000 liters) |
Why Do Animals Stay Underwater for So Long?
And finally: Why do these animals stay underwater for so long? That one’s easy: they go hunting.
Fun Facts
There are also spiders, that can stay underwater for a long time. They breathe through their trachea and have to surface just like lung breathers. But the water spider has an impressive trick: it creates a diving bell!
Find out more:
How Do Animals Breathe Underwater?
6 Creepy Deep-Sea Animals
The Deepest Diving Animals