12 Animals That Can Stay Without Food For A Long Time

OLMS These spooky amphibians live in underwater caves in Italy and the Balkans. They’re related to salamanders, but they live their entire lives under water. Resources in this environment are slim, and these creepy-crawlies can go up to ten years or more without eating.

2. SHARKS Great white sharks can go several weeks without eating. The cool thing about this is that the longer they go without a full meal, the more acute their hunting skills become. 112 Likes 10 Shares

3. BEARS Turns out the idea that bears hibernate over the winter was a big fat lie. They do sleep more during the winter, and they do cut their metabolism in half. While they may not sleep through Christmas and New Year’s, they can go about 100 days without eating or drinking. 115 Likes 11 Shares

4. PENGUINS It goes without saying that penguins live in some of the most brutal environments on earth. While the females venture out into the subzero temperatures to hunt, the males sit atop the nest, keeping the babies warm. For the two to four months that they’re out, the men live off of their layer of fat. No yummy fish in sight. 96 Likes 6 Shares

5. CAMELS Those humps on a camel’s back aren’t made of water, like you were probably told as a youngster. That’s fat stored up to give them energy when trekking through the desert — it can last around 40 days. 115 Likes 9 Shares

6. FROGS Since frogs rely on wet environments, their bodies are built to compensate when nature doesn’t comply. During times of draught, some species can hibernate for up to 16 months. Others living in colder areas enter a dormant state that conserves much more energy. Of course, when they’re in hibernation, they’re not going to be sitting down for breakfast every morning. 90 Likes 9 Shares

7. SNAKES These cold-blooded reptiles can’t regulate their body temperature in chilly weather, so their metabolism slows down 70% and they can go up to an entire year without consuming any food. 61 Likes 7 Shares

8. CROCODILES These guys preserve energy by waiting, motionless, for their prey. They’ll usually go a few months without food, but in extreme cases, can go up to three years without it. Given that they’re one of the oldest reptiles on the planet, they must be doing something right…but I’d be craving pizza by DAY three, at the latest 85 Likes 7 Shares

9. SPIDERS Since spiders sneakily wait for their food to come to them, sometimes they have to wait a while before their next meal. No worries, though — their bodies are made to last up to a few months without food, unless you’re a rabbit hutch spider, in which case you can go for about a year. 43 Likes 6 Shares

10. GALAPAGOS TORTOISE These guys can live to be over a century old. You’d think by that age, they’d want to indulge in as many meals as possible, but these reptiles can go without food or water for up to a year in some cases. 75 Likes 3 Shares

11. MUDSKIPPERS Hailing from Australia, Africa, and South America, mudskippers, aka lungfish, can hibernate for about four years in extremely harsh conditions. What’s interesting about their dormant state, though, is that they’ll start digesting their own muscle tissue, which is what we humans would call “starvation.” 54 Likes 7 Shares

12. GILA MONSTERS A heavy, typically slow-moving lizard, up to 60 cm (2.0 ft) long, the Gila monster is the only venomous lizard native to the United States and one of only two known species of venomous lizards in North America. They are known to feed between 5 to 10 times a years 39 Likes 4 Shares