Alie Ward

Olga Kolesnikova asked, is screaming actually a good defense mechanism?

Screams internally and...

Marla T wants to know, do animals in the wild pick up on each other's warnings?

Like, for example, do squirrels listen to warnings from birds when hawks or eagles fly over?

Well, you know, you mentioned seeing possums when you were younger, and we're looking at, you know, armadillos that are kind of possum size.

A lot of people wanted to know, Scalbar, the Cole, Gracie, Maldonada, Brittany Corrigan, Jen, Squirrel Alvarez, and Justin Bowen.

Scalbar asked, does playing dead ever, like, backfire?

Laying down in front of a predator seems kind of risky.

And Justin asked, I wonder if fainting goats qualify as playing dead.

So...

Possums don't have any armor on their bellies, but they just keel over drooling.

Is that a defense?

Is that a bug or a feature?

Yeah.

Eleanor Wall said...

You mentioned anal glands.

Does anyone spurt anything to let other people know there's some danger in the area?

Yeah.

And if you have questions like, is there a fish alarm cue?

Luckily for all of us, there's a 2004 study from the Journal of Animal Behavior titled, Is There a Fish Alarm Cue?