Animal Bubbles

God created a world that he called “very good” (Genesis 1:31). Death, suffering, and disease didn’t exist, and animals didn’t kill and eat each other, instead eating “every green plant for food” (Genesis 1:30). But when Adam and Eve sinned against God, they brought death into the world. One day, God will destroy death, and his children will live with him forever in a place where there won’t be any more death, crying, or pain (1 Corinthians 15:26; Revelation 21:4).

Until that day, the consequences of sin affect all of creation, including animals. In our fallen world, some creatures need special tactics to protect themselves from predators, catch their dinner, or cool down on a hot day. In his kindness, God created some creatures with creative uses for bubbles.

Hide and Seek

Using their legs and hairy abdomens, water scavenger beetles can trap an air bubble under the water. Then, while holding the bubble, they flip upside down and walk along the underside of the water. Scientists think scavenger beetles might use this trick to hide from predators.1

Water scavenger beetle
Andrew C, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Bubble Fortress

If you’ve ever seen a pile of white foam on plants in the spring, you’ve seen a spittlebug’s bubbles. Spittlebugs (the nymphal, or young, form of frog hopper bugs) make their foam by excreting air and a sticky fluid with their urine.

Spittlebugs hide in their bubbles for protection from predators. While inside their bubble fortresses, spittlebugs stick their abdomen outside to breathe, like a snorkel. When it is time for them to transform into froghoppers, the spittlebugs hide inside a large bubble. After they molt for the final time, they hop out as froghoppers.2

Spittlebug foam
Sanjay Acharya, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Beat the Heat

Echidnas live in the deserts of Australia and can’t sweat, so they use a special tactic to stay cool—blowing snot bubbles that cover their long beak. As the snot evaporates, the animal cools down.3

Echidna
0ystercatcher, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, via Flickr

Bubble Nets

Humpback whales use bubbles to create a net for catching krill. A humpback whale moves into a swarm of krill and starts swimming in a circle, blowing bubbles from its blowhole. The krill swim away from the bubbles and into the center of the circle. The whale keeps blowing bubbles, swimming in tighter circles until the krill are trapped in a small area. Then the whale swims in and gulps down the whole swarm.4

Recently, scientists have also noticed humpback whales blowing giant underwater bubble rings at boats. They’re not sure why the whales do this, but they think it could be the whale’s way of communicating something to the people watching.5

Humpback whales
Photo by Jonathan Xu on Unsplash

Scuba Gear

The water anole, a small, semiaquatic (spends time both in the water and on land) lizard, blows bubbles while underwater. The bubble works like a scuba tank, clinging to the anole’s nostrils. Then the anole breathes the bubble back in. Scientists discovered that this tactic helped anoles stay underwater longer when hiding from predators.6

Water anole
Dan MacNeal, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Footnotes

1. Elizabeth Gamillo, “Some Bugs Walk on Water, but This Talented Beetle Scurries Underneath Its Surface,” Smithsonian Magazine, July 6, 2021, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/beetle-can-walk-along-underside-waters-surface-180978115/.
2. James Gorman, “Inside the Spittlebug’s Bubble Home,” The New York Times, February 19, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/19/science/spittlebugs-bubble-home.html.
3. Jack Tamisiea, “Echidnas Blow Snot Bubbles to Cool Down,” Science, January 17, 2023, https://www.science.org/content/article/echidnas-blow-snot-bubbles-cool-down.
4. Lauren Sommer, “Humpback Whales Make Custom Fishing Nets—Out of Bubbles,” NPR, September 6, 2024, https://www.npr.org/2024/09/06/nx-s1-5087900/humpback-whales-krill-bubble-net-feeding.
5. Jess Cockerill, “Humpback Whale Bubble Rings May Be an Attempt to Communicate With Us,” ScienceAlert, June 12, 2024, https://www.sciencealert.com/humpback-whale-bubble-rings-may-be-an-attempt-to-communicate-with-us.
6. Sean Cummings, “These Lizards Blow Bubbles Underwater and Use Them Like Scuba Tanks,” Science, September 17, 2024, https://www.science.org/content/article/these-lizards-blow-bubbles-underwater-and-use-them-scuba-tanks.