TheMegabro

TheMegabro t1_izvte3w wrote

Reply to comment by stealth57 in How dogs scoop up water. by ooMEAToo

  1. If the water is a shallow enough puddle, a wolf sticking their face in to slurp directly wouldn't even work. They'd end up having to lick the puddle and swallowing after each lick - oh my god, lapping is just an evolutionary optimization of puddle-licking.
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TheMegabro t1_izvqtyx wrote

Reply to comment by Spacier_soda in How dogs scoop up water. by ooMEAToo

A lot of wolves are killed by wolves from other packs. Cougars/mountain lions will sneak attack, kill, and probably eat an individual wolf (a wolf travelling in search of a mate) if they have a chance. Bears would eat a wolf if they were able to grab one, although they aren't as soft-stepping as a cougar so it is unlikely for a bear to catch a wolf by surprise.

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TheMegabro t1_izv309l wrote

Reply to comment by stealth57 in How dogs scoop up water. by ooMEAToo

  1. The water could be freezing cold, which would be make head dunking even worse.

  2. The water, although not freezing, might have alligators or crocodiles in it. Any distance you can put between you and the water helps when dodging a surprise lunge from the water.

  3. Lowering the head really far cuts down how well an animal with forward-facing eyes can see the land surrounding the water, inviting a surprise attack from large land predators, cougars/bears/lions/etc.

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TheMegabro t1_izv0vhw wrote

Reply to comment by XColdLogicX in How dogs scoop up water. by ooMEAToo

If a wolf is drinking from a natural puddle, any water it spills goes back into the puddle. So "efficiency" didn't matter.

Edit: Unless you mean inefficient as in slow rather than wasteful of water. Moderately slow drinking could actually be a feature. Lots of animals are slow drinkers.

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