Why are Humans the Only Mammals That Choke?

Whales can’t, chimpanzees don’t, but we often die from it. There better be a good reason for this evolutionary risk.

This whale is jumping for joy because she does not need to worry about choking on her dinner like those silly humans. Photo by Thomas Kelley on Unsplash.

The human body is a magnificent peak on the mountain range of evolutionary biology. I do have one criticism, though.

Why do we take in food and air through the same orifice, such that every meal is literally a near-death experience, anatomically speaking? Thousands of people choke to death each year in the US alone.

Then again, I thought, surely all mammals have this problem. Oh. Except for whales. Whales have cleverly placed blowholes.

But it turns out I was wrong. Whales are not the only mammals who can’t choke. In fact, humans may be the only mammals that can choke (or at least the only ones that do so with any regularity). Let’s dive into the fascinating anatomy of a whale’s airway, how it compares to other mammals, and why our air and food passages may have evolved to be the way they are.

The anatomy of eating and breathing

The digestive tract and the respiratory tract of whales, dolphins, and porpoises are completely separate (as shown in the figure below). These sea-going mammals have an esophagus (the swallowing tube)…