PLAYING DEAD
Snakes smear themselves in POO to put predators off eating them, experts reveal – but that’s not their only gross trick
They're not the only creature that fakes death - some pull off the stunt to avoid sex, as we reveal below
SNAKES are cooking up a horrible stench to put predators off eating them.
Animals the world over are known for death feigning - aka playing dead - as a defence tactic but few go as far as the dice snake.
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In an extreme version of this common trick, dice snakes have been observed smearing themselves in poo to deter predators.
Dead creatures defecate or urinate once soon after passing due to their muscles relaxing, so the snakes may be mimicking this.
Some of the snakes go as far as bleeding from the mouth too as an added desperate effort to put birds of prey off.
Those who carry out this Oscar-worthy stunt spend less time pretending to be dead than those that don’t, according to research.
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Scientists from the University of Belgrade in Serbia published their findings in the Biology Letters journal based on dice snakes from a lake island in North Macedonia.
The scientists pretended to be predators by grabbing 263 of the snakes and pinching them in a way that a hungry bird would, before releasing each one and analysing their behaviour.
It's here that they noticed the reptiles started to play dead by quickly smearing themselves in poo and producing blood from their mouth.
But not everyone tried the tactic - just over 10 per cent of them unleashed "small pools" or even "dripping mouthfuls" of blood.
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This may be down to heightened stress hormone levels, the report notes.
And 124 of them played the poo prank.
Everyone can see the grass but you have 20/20 vision and a high IQ if you can spot the snake in less than 7 seconds
However, scientists timed them and noticed that the snakes who pulled these theatrics spent about two seconds less faking their death.
"Two seconds might not be much when you’re reading the paper, but it could be enough for a snake to make a successful escape," researcher Vukašin Bjelica told the New York Times.
"They really commit to the role, depending on the individual."
The paper notes that temperature, sex or size could be a factor too.
Overall the group of snakes spent between six and 24 seconds playing dead - and the youngest of the bunch spent much longer doing this.
“It is still not exactly clear how each individual ‘tailors’ their antipredator response and our observations are mainly limited as most of them come from interactions with human researchers and not observations of real life encounters with natural predators,” Bjelica added.
FAKING DEATH NOT JUST ABOUT AVOIDING PREDATORS...
Many animals seem to fake their deaths but not all are designed to avoid being eaten by predators.
Some creatures have been observed using the stunt to avoid unwanted partners.
A number of female dragonflies have been seen doing this to dodge advances from male partners.
And the European common frog has been caught doing the same.
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