Author: Mike Denison / Source: Science News
The deserts of the southwestern United States may be the lair of secret ninja masters: desert kangaroo rats.
Researchers armed with high-speed cameras have captured the complex maneuvers that the rodents (Dipodomys deserti) deploy to avoid deadly bites from sidewinder rattlesnakes (Crotalus cerastes). Two new studies, published online March 27 in Functional Ecology and the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, offer the first detailed looks at those tricks.
Kangaroo rats can avoid attacks using their extremely sensitive hearing and by drumming their feet on the ground to deter predators, says behavioral ecologist Rulon Clark of San Diego State University. But that doesn’t always work.
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