Animals have to be on constant alert to keep safe from the predator. Their defence is to fight or escape predators bigger than themselves. Some animals use their horns, claws and sharp teeth to protect themselves. The most common and natural reaction is to run. You can’t eat what you can’t catch, right? While speed is an effective means of escape, there are other equally wily ways employed by animals to get themselves to safety.
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Loud animal calls? Don’t be afraid — it could be an alarm call warning others of oncoming danger. Oxpeckers, African elephants and monkeys are fine examples. While elephants make rumbling noises as honey bees near, monkeys have distinct calls for leopards and eagles.
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This is an art animals have mastered. False features, appendages and mimicking are effective means of avoiding being eaten. Some snakes have bright warning colours to make them look like their venomous counterparts. Warning calls made by the African fork-tailed drongo is functional. It mimics the meerkat’s warning calls when it is busy eating its prey. This alarm causes the meerkat to flee, abandoning its meal for the drongo to finish.
Chemical Features
These are body mechanisms to deter predators. The smell released by a skunk is one the attacker will never forget. The dart frog secretes poisonous chemicals preventing animals from eating them. Turkey vultures vomit undigested meat all over you if you venture too close. This vomit, of course, smells terrible and can sting the skin and eyes of the predator. Hence, enemies prefer to attack its eggs instead of the fully grown animal.
Camouflage
Try finding a leaf insect or a chameleon on a tree. It could take you a while. That’s because they have managed to blend in with their surroundings. Camouflage allows the animal to hide in its environment and mask its identity. The Desert horned lizard, found in North America, changes its colour when in danger, then inflates and shows off its spikes to make it seem larger than it is. Finally, it shoots blood from its eyes to escape.
Physical features
Have you seen a porcupine and wondered if it could be eaten? Well, for the porcupine its physical structures serve as a defence mechanism. It would make a difficult meal to chew through the sharp quills. Similarly, predators would have a tough time trying to get to a turtle through its protective shell. A deep-sea squid attacks its predator and pulls away, breaking off the tip of its own arm. The arm will glow and twitch, creating a diversion, enabling the squid to escape.
Playing dead
It lies on its back with its feet up in the air. Ah! That’s one dead opossum, you say. And, then without warning, it’s up on it’s feet scampering away. That’s thanotosis adopted by the animal when faced with danger.
Since most predators avoid dead or rotting animals, this turns out to be effective. Opossums can go into a semi-comatose state and play dead to fool their attackers. They also emit a corpse-like smell to drive away predators.