For example, when a pelican eats a fish whole, how does the fish die? How long does it live for inside the pelican? Doesn’t it fight back from inside somehow, or does it just know and is like ‘whelp I guess Mrs Fish is in for a surprise!’.?
In: Biology
The prey animal will suffocate quickly due to a lack of oxygen. The prey will try to escape but it usually passes out and dies before it can do anything with a few exceptions.
(such as: https://www.livescience.com/snake-eel-bursts-out-of-heron.html )
There are also some insects that can survive being swallowed whole and will simply make a trip through the other end:
In the case of the pelican, birds have an organ called a gizzard which contains stones that had been previously swallowed and are used to grind up the food. They don’t have teeth, you see, so they needed a way to emulsify their food so that it’s easily digestible. It’s an ancient adaptation and the gastroliths that they contain have been found in countless dinosaur fossils from throughout prehistory.
Basically, the fish doesn’t have very long to ponder its situation before it’s turned into paste.
The fish gets digested by the pelican’s stomach acid and dies quickly. It doesn’t have time to fight back.
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