Survival at the Poles - Keeping Warm in Water

Marine mammals, such as seals and whales, live around both the North and South Poles. The heat from a warm-blooded animal is absorbed by cold water faster than it is by air. A human being would survive for only a few minutes in the freezing polar seas but the bodies of seals and whales are adapted so that they can keep warm. As with the land mammals their shape is rounded but a fur coat would not be much good for trapping heat underwater; instead they have a very thick layer of blubber to keep body heat from escaping.