Some animals shouldn’t be messed with. Some animals you shouldn’t mess with for obvious reasons e.g. an elephant. Other animals, well… the reason isn’t that obvious. These 5 animal defense mechanisms are sure to leave you stunned and questioning just how you would go to protect yourself or your family.
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1Texas Horned Lizard – Blood Shooting
The Texas Horned Lizard may be small and brown and plump but it has a way of defending itself that may seem a little odd. But rather than just tell you this crazy lizards self defense method just tell me how you would react in this situation. You walk up to another person and you’re mad at them when suddenly the other person releases a steady stream of blood that shoots five feet in front of them right at you. Well I personally wouldn’t hang around and this is exactly the reaction the Texas Horned Lizards predators take when the lizard does this.
2The Hairy Frog – Breaking Bones
The hairy frog turned into an internet hero/villain overnight when a strange, slightly disturbing, defense mechanism was discovered. The hairy frog will break its own bones and push the splinters through the skin and use as a weapon to ward off predators. Guess this is one frog who doesn’t want to croak it.
3Potato Beetle – Poisonous Poop Suit
The potato beetle has an interesting, if not disgusting, form of self defense. It does not protect itself in a traditional way to say the least. The potato beetle covers itself in its own poop which just so happens to be poisonous to predators. So it does not actually stop predators eating it, it just says to them, “Do you want me, with all my seasonings, to be your last meal?” Most predators say no.
4The Sea Cucumber – Liquid to Solid to Liquid
Despite having the most ridiculous name in the history of animal names, the sea cucumber does not mess around. The sea cucumber can flee from animals by literally turning from a liquid into a solid and vice versa. These animals can slip through many small gaps by putting different parts of itself through each gap. If that wasn’t skin crawling enough, the sea cucumber can turn itself inside out exposing its digestive system with all its toxins and these toxins can kill predators. The sea cucumber does not sound so ridiculous anymore does it?
5The Opossum – Green Anal Fluid
I could hear all my readers frantically scanning the page for the opossums so your wait is over here it is, the ultimate defense mechanism animals. The opossum is literally a magician with the amount of tricks at its disposal. It will start off by foaming at the mouth probably to try and convince the predator that this opossum is just bad news. It will then release a green anal fluid that smells bad, and I mean bad, and then it will fall over and enter a semi comatose state to remove all excitement of the hunt from the predator. After all this the predator is just like “I’m going to go ahead and eat somewhere else”.
My favorite animal has got to be the Texas Horned Lizard and this has absolutely nothing to do with Scott Summers being my favorite character in X-Men. Seriously it has absolutely nothing to do with it. But enough about me what is your favorite animal defense mechanism, maybe it is one not even on the list, post in the comments below and remember if you like the article then don’t forget to share!