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Snakes escape predators by playing dead — and they make their performances even more convincing by denigrate themselves with their own blood and stool , scientists have notice .
play possum is common in the animal realm . Various insect , Pisces the Fishes , amphibians , reptilian , birds and mammalian all counterfeit their own mortality in last - ditch efforts to fool piranha . This behavior is known as death feigning or thanatosis .
Death feigning is the act of playing dead to deter predators to eventually escape.
In a composition print May 8 in the journalBiology Letters , investigator distinguish how die snakes ( Natrix tessellata ) take their Shakespearian theatrics to the next level .
When confronted by a marauder , thesnakesexpel faecal matter and musk , a putrid digestive spin-off . They then flop on their backs and feign death , and sometimes they set about bleeding from the sassing , in all likelihood in an attempt to make themselves a less - appealing repast .
" Death feigning is a mellow - risk , high - reward deportment . If you feign death , you ’re completely helpless , so it would be nice if you have some sort of protection against just being directly consumed , " lead authorVukašin Bjelica , a biologist at the University of Belgrade , told Live Science .
Dice snakes reach maximum lengths of about 4 feet ( 1.2 meters ) and are nonvenomous , so they have few defenses against larger mammals and birds in their aboriginal range of Europe , Asia and northern Africa .
But by deploy this suite of demeanour — known as a defense portfolio — dice ophidian can make themselves seem unappetizing . The mephitis of the dejection and musk and the blinking drool leak from their mouths may give the picture that the ophidian is a moulder carcase rather than a refreshing piece of meat .
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The revulsion and confusion that this macabre display evokes in a likely predator may provide just enough time for the snake to take to the woods or even induce the vulture to abandon its exploit wholly .
The researchers focused on a population on Golem Grad , an island in Lake Prespa , North Macedonia . This population appear to be more predisposed to thanatosis than other populations of dice snakes .
" The dice snake from Golem Grad are in a rum readiness of circumstance . First of all , there is an intense avian predation pressure . Second , these snake in the grass are rather large when compare to their mainland congenator , " Bjelica said . " Being big is good if you ’re faced off against a gape - limited vulture such as some birds . "
They test 263 dice Snake on the island by handling them in way that simulated how a vulture might near its prey — grasping , holding and stretch its body . Of these snakes , 124 smeared feces on their bodies . Twenty - eight bleed from the mouth — a phenomenon forebode autohemorrhaging or reflexive hemorrhage .
Bjelica thinks that individual personalities may determine whether the snakes wage in this behavior . " Some individuals are more bluff — prone to risks — or shy — less potential to hire in wild conduct , " he said .
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Only one juvenile snake bleed from the mouth , bespeak that this behavior is more common in adults , and it may be too much of a risk for little snakes . " Juvenile snakes are minor than adults and can easily be consumed . This might be one of the reason they annul this risky exhibit , " Bjelica say .
Dice snake that expelled feces and musk and then bleed from the mouth drop less time in a death - dissemble res publica , the researchers found . The snakes that used fecal smearing and mouth haemorrhage spent an norm of 2 seconds less in thanatosis , which the researcher believe to be significant endurance vantage .
These snakes are not the only animals know to go the extra mil when play dead . Virginia opossums ( Didelphis virginiana ) may take a shit and droolwhile feign death , designate that this evolutionary strategy has proven utilitarian across the spectrum of creature lifetime .
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