I\'ve seen a number of animals - dogs, cats, squirrels, ducks and geese, etc dri

Question

I've seen a number of animals - dogs, cats, squirrels, ducks and geese, etc drink from puddles, some of them were muddy, others had green flora growing under water. Same goes for lakes and rivers. A human would not drink that. Do animals experience gastrointestinal discomfort or can they die from drinking water like that?

At the same time I hear about the problem of "clean water" in 3rd world countries and how diarrhea is the #1 killer of children under 5.

Are humans the only animals that require a certain purity of their drinking water? Why is it that a dog can drink from a puddle, but a human is likely to get sick from doing the same? Do baby animals get sick from drinking "dirty" water?

Explanation / Answer

Animals do sometimes experience health problems from microbiologically polluted water. But they drink it, because they probably have not so many options to choose from as humans have. Additionally, wilderness is very harsh, sick animals get eaten by predators quickly, so the short term evolutionary selection pressure in wilderness works wery strongly in favor of good immunity in animals. So yes, I would expect animals would be a little less sensitive than humans, but still susceptible to ilnesses. But i quickly google examples about dogs:

"Giardia and Cryptospori-dium ... can cause inflammation of the intestinal tract and diarrhea when in

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