Feigning Death

Hello, this isWild Suzhou. Today, we will betalking about death-feigning, and why do some animals do it? First, what isdeath-feigning? It is a fancier way of saying that an animal is pretending tobe dead, usually so that they can escape a predator. There are many examples ofanimals doing this, and one of the most famous examples would be the Opossum.However, many other organisms do this as well, such as insects, frogs, andsnakes. Charles Darwin once recorded a beetle he had found had pretended to bedead for 23 minutes. But why would ananimal do this? Wouldn’t it make them easier to catch if they’re pretending tobe dead? Sometimes, this is true. But in certain species, pretending to be deadmakes predators less likely to eat them. There are risks to eating an animalthat has been dead for too long, since bacteria and other diseases could befound in the carcass. This is similar to how humans usually throw out old andmoldy food instead of eating it. When it feelsthreatened, the hognose snake will lay with its belly up, secrete a foulsmelling liquid, and sometimes spew blood from their mouth. This gives thepredators the sense that there is something wrong with it and that they shouldavoid eating it. Another animal,the Fire-Bellied Toad, will also pretend to be dead when threatened. However,when it rolls onto its back, any predators looking for a meal will see thebright yellow-orange markings on the toad’s belly, and they will usually avoideating it because bright colors usually mean that an animal is poisonous. For Wild Suzhou,I’m Ciana, thanks for listening and see you next time.