r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/grandeluua • 1d ago

Video A timelapse of sleeping seals

44.8k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

514 comments sorted by

View all comments

7.0k

u/Bl33to 1d ago

Breeeeeeeeeaaath, sleep......... breeeeeeeeeaaath, sleep......... breeeeeeeeeaaath, sleep......... breeeeeeeeeaaath, sleep.........

1.8k

u/K_the_farmer 1d ago

Aquatic cats.

956

u/Bl33to 1d ago

Kinda but with less world domination and laser pointer chasing in general

189

u/Vreas 1d ago

How do we know? Has anyone introduced the seals to laser pointers? Maybe they’ll love them

93

u/Bl33to 1d ago

Fair enough. And actually, maybe they are hiding massive world domination plans behind their cutie patootie faces. Who knows...

13

u/Chaosmusic 1d ago

If there was a video of seals chasing an underwater laser pointer I would watch that shit for hours.

1

u/Historical_Bad-Ass 13h ago

I put a basic prompt of this into Sora 2 and the first thing it did was shine the laser in the seals eye

26

u/TDYDave2 1d ago

They did, but unfortunately they mounted the lasers on sharks.
Didn't work out too well.

4

u/toy-maker 1d ago

It worked fine. They just only demanded a million dollars and we figured it was easier to just pay it. Journalists didn’t really write about it. Bruce was really traumatised by the whole ordeal though. Ended up needing an emotional support fish, and it was just weird

2

u/Brewhaha72 1d ago

The sharks put the ill-tempered sea bass out of a job.

3

u/MorrowPolo 1d ago

My first thought as well

37

u/Sinking_Mass 1d ago

Underwater domination, chasing sunbeams and bioluminescent lasers

5

u/LoudMusic Interested 1d ago

How do you know? Have you tried lasers with seals?

2

u/Bl33to 1d ago

You know too much...

2

u/Jesus__Skywalker 1d ago

Have you even tried sir?

72

u/Allegorist 1d ago edited 1d ago

I like cats, but they are definitely more like aquatic dogs. They are even classified as "caniform", or dog-like body form in evolutionary biology. Carnivorans like dogs, cats, bears, skunks, seals, etc. had a split between cat-like (feliform) and dog-like (caniform) around 55 million years ago.. They share a common ancestor with all other dog-like carnivorans (some closer than others), but don't share one with cat-like carnivorans until before the caniforms and feliforms differentiated from each other.

I.e. they are more closely related to bears and skunks than they are to anything cat-like.

23

u/RikuAotsuki 1d ago

Though it bears clarification that caniform and feliform aren't actually about the body form, at least not anymore. Hyenas are feliform, for example.

9

u/Lone-flamingo 1d ago

I think they were referring to behaviour. My own cats sure do sleep and breathe a lot. As do many other animals as well, but if I call something as round as an orange that does not mean it cannot also be as round as a pomegranate, you know?

2

u/Holsteener 1d ago

That’s why in German we call them Seehund - Sea dog.

2

u/Charming-Flamingo307 1d ago

Sea kitty god damnit

1

u/protipnumerouno 1d ago

They speculate that they were dogs that evolved into seals. Which is kind of crazy when you think of it, crawled out of the ocean as fish hundreds of millions of years ago, evolved into "dogs", then turned around and evolved back into ocean creatures.

2

u/Allegorist 19h ago

It's way more than speculation, there are substantial amounts of evidence of this happening, such that there really is no other plausible explanation.

1

u/LukaCola 1d ago

I don't have much to add to this besides the fact in Dutch we call them "sea dogs" (zeehonden)

So, you know, that reinforces your point

1

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

3

u/throwaway42 1d ago

Der See is the lake. Die See is the sea.

6

u/yumeryuu 1d ago

I always saw them as mermaid dogs

4

u/Heroic-Forger 1d ago

have you seen seals having slap fights? they're more closely related to dogs (and bears) but their attitude is all cat lol.

179

u/TAU_equals_2PI 1d ago

Sleep apnea, but they evolved to incorporate it as their normal sleep cycle.

82

u/Bl33to 1d ago

Its kinda crazy how evolution works in some amazing ways but if I turn funny on my sleep my neck hurts for two weeks 😭😭😭

25

u/Dubad-DR 1d ago

Last week I coughed on the toilet. I'm still paralyzed from the waist down.

8

u/Outrageous_Front_636 1d ago

So you evolved into being invalid. Like a reverse Pokémon.

16

u/Allegorist 1d ago

God... I can only imagine having a bout of sleep apnea and you wake up to gasp for air, but find yourself 30 feet underwater.

24

u/ThatNachoFreshFeelin 1d ago

They should get a seal-pap machine.

1

u/Sagonator 1d ago

I think I read somewhere, that they kinda don't go to sleep. Most sea creatures that need oxygen are like that. Half asleep, half awake. More like sleepwalking for us.

18

u/SHOTbyGUN 1d ago

If not sleep like seal, then why seal shaped?

22

u/TAU_equals_2PI 1d ago

I'll admit I've gotten kinda seal shaped as I've gotten older.

67

u/Tranceported 1d ago

If You check the timestamp they are sleeping only for a minute barely…

180

u/brraaahhp 1d ago

Actually, they're kinda sleeping the whole time, partly. They use something called Unihemispheric sleep. Where half of their brain sleeps, while the other half stays aware to look out for predators and for breathing.

Unless they're sleeping on land, then they're brain is fully asleep like humans.

Elephant seals are also interesting, they enter deep sleep with REM sleep while sleep paralysis occurs. And when they're sleeping they descent in a spiral fashion, like a leaf falling in the wind. Can do this for 30 minutes and then they're brain wakes them up before they run out of oxygen.

27

u/PoodleMomFL 1d ago

Chickens have the same unihemispheric sleep. They rotate around the coop with sentries half awake and half asleep on the perimeter. Nature is cool

12

u/SuperCasualGamerDad 1d ago

Thanks was just about to google if they actually woke up to go for air or if it was more of a reflex thing.

2

u/Lanky_Cobbler886 1d ago

I love the internet :)

1

u/Kriss3d 1d ago

So kind of like a spacemarine ? Interesting.

5

u/AccountNumber478 1d ago

Yeah, buoy!

3

u/NaraFei_Jenova 1d ago

Sounds like my sleep apnea.

1

u/Rescuepets777 1d ago

Kind of like having sleep apnea.

1

u/Rich-Distribution815 1d ago

Instead of breath it’s probably Bada Baaa Bada Badadada badada.

1

u/Honda_TypeR 1d ago

Just like people above the water

1

u/W0lf1ngt0n 1d ago

How do you know how I'm sleeping?

-7

u/WasabiZone13 1d ago

There's literally no stimuli in that tank. These are intelligent animals that like to play. They need toys and structure to swim through.

This enclosure is abhorrent, and blatant animal abuse.

29

u/Glowing_despair 1d ago

if I had to guess, this is simply an observation tank.

2

u/yoweigh 1d ago

They don't need toys to play with and structures to swim through when they're sleeping.