Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-07-25
ANIMALS AMAZE
WITH LONG FASTS
Sea-EIephant, for Instance,
Goes 7 Months Without
Food or Drink.

The fast of a person for so short
time as a few weeks is considered
worthy of record, yet some of the
lower animals regularly abstain from
food for several months during each
year. In animals such as the cater
! pillar, the crab and the lobster total
| abstinence from food occurs during
the entire shedding season of many
weeks.
A marvellous duplication of this UNI
broken fast is found in the life of
the young spider during the first few
weeks of it's existence. Sea bears
and walruses deny themselves food
for many weeks at breeding time, but
they are put TO shame by the fervid
constancy of the gigantic sea elephant
Ia species of seal), which annually
remains foodless from August until
February. These animals, unlike the
caterpillar, crab and lobster, which
fast during the time of inaction, are
at the height of their excitement, ex-
ertion, responsibility and danger when
they steadily refuse to feed in the
midst of plenty.
Eat for Five Months.
Sea-elephants are about 16 feet in
length and Is feet in girth, and the
oil alone in their bodies amounts to
approximately $50 gallons, yet the APP
petite which must have been neces-
sary to develop such proportions has
been so long disciplined and curbed
that for seven months in the year
they neither eat nor drink During
the remaining five months. when they
eat enormous quantities. their food is
6RUnfQ6 To iroy infn
penditure, but day by day and week
by week Is held in reserve for future
use in the form of fat, blubber and
oil.
1t is not the habit of mammals alone
to store up energy for future use, for
the penguin has the ability to defy
hunger and survive what would be
starvation conditions to any other bird
in the world. The commoner kinds,
which nest within the Antarctic Circle,
such as Adele penguins, go ashore
in the Summer, make nests amid
stones and ice and endure periods
of many days entirely without food.
Their fasts, however, are slight, com
pared with that of the Emperor
penguin, which defies all tradition
by choosing the appalling gloom of
the Antarctic night for it's nesting
lIIItC III PldCGS WHERE no hl1u Oh nest
is possible. The egg is laid on the
ice and instantly placed on the upper
part of the birds feet, where it is held
in position by naked patch of flesh
at the lower half of the breast. For
six weeks this patient bird stands in
the raging winds of the polar Winter
with its extremely low temperature.
Through all this the constant and
devoted bird remains foodleSS, living
upon the fat stored in it's body.
Salmon Seldom Eat
The salmon, among the fish, is like
wise entitled to an important place
among fasting animals, for there is
never a month in which salmon are
not ascending or descending fresh.
water rivers, and, be their sojourn
long or short. they preserve an I'M
broken fast. Now and then a salmon
is tempted by the spinning bait of an
angler. but the majority go without
food and hence are uncaught while
in fresh water save by the net, living
in the meantime on the fat stored up
during eager feasting in the far-dis-
tant ocean.
The ability to endure such hardship
until it becomes no longer a hardship
is the result of hundreds of thou
sands of years of slow evolution.
Those best fitted to undergo the test
have survived and transmitted their
power to their posterity, which in turn
carry on the ancient practice.