Elephants Swim

An eye-catching and informative look at how animals behave in water.

The book offers a playful and detailed survey of wild swimmers, showing how elephants snorkel through raised trunks and mother kangaroos carry dry joeys across rivers.

Armadillos walk along streambeds, and sea otters anchor in kelp to sleep.

The pages present a vivid and accessible study of animal survival, tracing how brown pelicans plunge headfirst into waves and squid zoom backwards using jet propulsion.

• Animal Adaptations: Hollow, air-filled hairs keep caribou buoyant in rivers, while duck-billed platypuses steer with flat tails and paddle with webbed paws.
• Habitats: Hot tigers back rear-first into streams to escape the heat, while newborn hippo calves take their first breaths after being born underwater.
• Ocean Life: Courting walruses inflate throat sacs to chime like church bells, and newborn sea turtles dig out of night nests to race hungry gulls to the surf.
• Science for Kids: Concluding field notes explain why humans must practice the dog paddle, while other mammals swim and float by pure instinct.

Linda Capus Riley is an award-winning journalist who has written three non-fiction children's books.