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nickname wrote:
> The word dive is used in many contexts.
> Probosis monkeys are said to do belly flop dives into water from
> branches.
> Diving boards diving and pouncing onto a salmon swimming upstream are
> completely different from what I meant.
>
> I meant diving in this sense: from a surface floating position, then
> arc-diving down to get food, and resurfacing. At no point is the animal
> in contact with the ground (as support). Marine animals do this,
> terrestrial animals don't. Possibly polar bears do this, but I haven't
> seen or heard of it. DD
It doesn't seem likely for polar bears. On the other paw, it seems a
definition question. Seals and walruses do it, so they are marine
mammals. However, they spend a great deal of time on land for a marine
mammal. Polar bears don't, so they are terrestrial mammals, although
they spend a great deal of time on and in the water for terrestrial
mammals. Land-based otters dive for food, but that makes them marine
animals? Lakeside mink probably don't, so they are land animals?
Muskrat and beaver and nutria apparently come ashore for food, as do
hippopotami.
The dividing line seems, dare I say it, fluid.
Will in New Haven
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