Irony is that this disease was known as hydrophobia once. Due to large production of saliva, rabies victims have difficulties in swallowing and show panic fear of water. They refuse to drink and can't quench their thirst. Rabies is mammalian virus, so in theory, sea and sea/land mammals could be infected also or be bearer of the virus. Most likely seals, sea lions or walruses. Ways they could be infected is through the bite of rabid animal or if they eat infected animal, which is less possible. Contact between infected and healthy animal isn't way of transfer of the virus. The virus must get into tissues to cause an infection mostly by bite or through digestive tract. So far, there is no evidence about rabies cases among sea mammals. Disease is mostly developed among continental and flying mammals (dogs, wolves, foxes, racoons, bats,...) Really good question Orleander. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I am unrealistically afraid of whales. And now I am unrealistically afraid of a rabid whale. It comes up for air and gets bit by a rapid bat, and there ya have it. Can you imagine a whale or dolphin being afraid of water? Is the virus in the saliva? So if a rabid dolphin had it and tried to bite another dolphin, the virus would just get washed away?
Whales are cute. You should go see the one in the Miami seaquarium (or any other seaquarium). Sweet. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I'm not talking orcas or belugas. I'm talking BIG whales. The ones with mouths that a whole person can fit inside.
I would have thought that an orca that likes seals for a snack is considerably more potentially dangerous to a human than a large whale like a blue or humpback that is happy with krill.
Did you see the word 'unrealistically' in my post??? Are you trying to freak me out about orcas too??!! lol
The only marine mammals that are physically capable of eating you are the sperm whale and the orca. The orca is actually a large dolphin, which is obvious if you look at one closely. We call the sperm whale a "whale" because of its size, but it is actually more closely related to the dolphins as well. Both the sperm whale and the orca have teeth and are predators. The sperm whale eats squid, sharks and fish. The orca eats seals and fish. Dolphins are better swimmers and too hard to catch and so are not usually worth the expenditure of energy. Theoretically either species could easily eat a human but as far as I know there are no verified cases. The beluga is also not a whale at all, it and the narwhal are in a little family all by themselves closely related to dolphins. All the whales other than the sperm whale are more distant from the dolphins. They have baleen instead of teeth, which they use as filters to graze on krill. They couldn't eat you if they wanted to, and they don't want to. I'm not even sure they can open their mouths wide enough to let you in. Consider that on land the largest mammals are all grazers. They couldn't catch enough prey to survive--too clumsy and too hungry. It's the same in the water. Blue whales and humpback whales don't have to eat plants because there are krill--tiny animals--suspended in the water. But they "graze" on them. So if you want to have rational fears instead of irrational ones, worry only about being eaten by an orca or a sperm whale. And then realize that since it's never happened to anyone else, you will be in all the history books and people will remember your name for centuries. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
They could. They open their mouths very wide and let a lot of water in, then close their mouths and force the water out through the baleen, trapping the krill and other small creatures inside their mouths.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=7340100&dopt=Citation One record of it in ringed seals. They bite on land, and are sort of related to dogs, so that is no real surprise. They could catch it from arctic foxes, or each other.
Thank you iceaura. I always worry about rescued whales. What if they got bit, show no signs of infection and then are pushed back into the water. And big whales may not chew me up and swallow me, but I would definately fit in their mouth.
All seals are distantly related to dogs as well as to cats, bears and mustelids. All those families fall into the order Carnivora. Polar bears hunt seals and a polar bear could conceivably be bitten by a rabid fox. Whale skin is pretty thick. There aren't many animals that can bite through it. Orcas, the largest dolphins, hunt only baby whales. Great white sharks probably do it too, but does anyone know whether rabies can be transmitted to a cold-blooded gill-breather? And baleen whales have no teeth so they couldn't infect anyone else with their rabies by biting them. Only the Japanese people who kill them for meat. Except for the sperm whales, I don't think any whale could swallow you, and he certainly wouldn't. Whales only come up for air three or four times an hour, so you would have drowned long before you could suffer any physical trauma. Now doesn't that make you feel better about all of this? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Fraggle Rocker: Yeah? Well my friend Ahab has a few words for you! Orleander: What if they were rescued by zombies, or the rage creatures from 28 Days Later? And what if one of the rage creatures got cut by a fishing line or something, and the blood got in the whale's eye, like in 28 Weeks Later? Then the whale would have the rage virus, and go totally psycho once it was pushed into the ocean? Think about it.
Xev, so you have no fears? When I was 8-9 I was fishing off the rocks in Northern CA when a huge black back silently came up slowly out of the water right in front of me. Scared the hell outta me. Couple months later my step father threw me off a pier so that I would learn to swim, apparently he never heard of drowning. Anyways, as I was sinking and watching the light reflect down into the water I just kept thinking of that big black creature. I KNOW it silly. I can't help it. :bawl:
I'm not mocking you. I'm being completely facetious, of course, but it isn't meant as mockery. And no, I'm not really phobic of anything, unless you count cops.
Remember that seals (phocids) are carnivores like their relatives: canids, felids, ursids (bears) and mustelids (weasels etc.). Carnivores are very adept at defending themselves. If one seal in a herd starts attacking the others because he has rabies, the others will gang up on him. A few of them will get bitten and die, but before long he will be killed and the herd will survive.
