“NO FOOD”- How Animal World Goes For Fasting ?

Food is not always plentiful for animals and birds in nature. Sometimes food is hard to find and sometimes there are no food at all.

Food is not always plentiful for animals and birds in nature. Sometimes food is hard to find and sometimes there is no food at all. In that situation animals and birds saves energy in many ways to pull off the forced “NO FOOD” days.

In order to survive in hard conditions many species of animal and birds disrupts the blood supply to their organs, paralyze their digestive system, lower their body temperature and temporarily shut down the immune system. The buffer stock of fat keeps them alive during that time.

Thus many animals and birds go on full or partial starvation due to lack of food, but some species is known to go on without food for days, months or years. Let’s check out some of them.

20 Days:

Atlas Moth

The caterpillar eats three to four times of its own weight per day but it forsakes eating after it transformed into imago known as “Atlas Moth”. This moth eats nothing; it only survives on body fat. However, the fast ends around twenty days with its death.

7 Months:

Fat Tailed Dwarf Lemur

Madagascar's “Fat-Tailed Dwarf Lemur” does not receive fruit and insect in the mountain forests during the winter, meaning it stays dormant in tree hollows for an average of 210 days, relying on body fat. Meanwhile, its body temperature is maintained at the same level as the air temperature so that it does not have to lose calories through "heat transfer".  

10 Months:

Eastern Pygmy Possum

In Australia's frequent turbulent, unpredictable weather, the “Eastern Pygmy Possum” has no regular food supply. As a result, it often goes without food around 10 months and rely only upon reserve fat.

1.5 Years:

Python

The “Python” is cold-blooded reptile. It does not have to maintain body temperature at certain level, so “Python” saves calories lying idle. Moreover, its metabolism is very slow. Once it finds a prey, it can easily runs without food for a year and a half.

2 Years:

Lung Fish

There is no doubt that a “Lung Fish” is marathon player in fasting. It lives in the lakes of Africa and it actually has lungs in addition to gills. As the water in the lakes dries up, it goes bottom of the soil. During drought, it can go without food for extended period upto two years.  

5 Years:

Burrowing Frog

Burrowing species of “Frog” found in Australia can go without food for years after it buried itself underground. It comes out only when it is raining and at that time, it eats like glutton. It can even prey insects half of its size and put them directly in its stomach.