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Comment by dboreham | Hacker News Reader

Didn't all of our ancestors, all the way back to fish, swim at least once in a while?

Do any of our close relatives swim? Do chimps and gorilla?

I caught an armadillo once when I was like 10. I threw him in a pond to see if he could swim (yes total dick move). I hypothesized the armor would sink him and was prepared to rescue him.

He swam to the other side fine (but not very gracefully) and ran away. Knowing nothing with certainty, I would venture all mammals can "swim" to some degree and with with varying levels of effectiveness if it's life or death.

I googled a bit and there are some mammals that can't swim.

Easy ones that can't swim are giraffes and hippos due to their body shapes. Rhinos are a maybe, we're not sure. Some believe camels, but there's a link showing some camels that swim more than 3km to reach grazing areas.

There are also videos of various apes swimming, and its believed that they (like humans) can all learn to, even though its not natural.

Finally there are various dog breeds that can't swim due to their anatomy or fur.

Hippos can't swim? They spend most of their time in water, and are excellent swimmers.

I guess the idea is that they kind of walk on the bottom:

Hippos Can’t Swim? | Natural World | BBC Earth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu4T9kawhAM

And from wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippopotamus#Characteristics_a...

"Despite being semiaquatic and having webbed feet, an adult hippo is not a particularly good swimmer, nor can it float. It rarely enters deep water; when does, the animal moves by bouncing off the bottom."

Thanks for the insight

Other primates can be taught to swim, but like humans, it isn't a functional instinct. If you throw an untrained chimp or gorilla into deep water, they will thrash and flail much as an untrained human would.

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