These snakes not only fake their own deaths, they use gory special effects to do it

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2024-05-08 23:30:14

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Awards season may be over for human actors this year, but there’s no rest for some of nature’s most audacious thespians.

Dice snakes can fake their own death when being attacked by predators, putting on a theatrical display that includes smearing themselves with their own poop and letting blood ooze from their mouths.

And dice snakes that use these extra dramatic effects spend less time feigning their own deaths, and consequently less time in a dangerous situation, than their counterparts that don’t use this strategy, a study published on Wednesday in the journal Biology Letters found.

Many different animals fake their own death as a defense mechanism against predators, with examples seen among insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, but just how – and to what degree – it works is still unclear.