Stay Away From Me! Animals and their Defence Mechanisms

 

Cinereous mourner

Deep in the Amazonian rainforest, researchers came across an elusive bird’s nest and decided to film it. As the video above shows, when a chick hatched, they saw a creature that looked and behaved more like a toxic moth caterpillar than a baby bird. It was excellent at mimicry; fooling its natural predators, like monkeys and snakes, into believing that it is a toxic caterpillar. This species of birds is called cinereous mourner. It's the first species of birds that have been observed by humans to pretend to be something they are not. It is very hard to find because of its remote habitat.

Flashlight Fish

The flashlight fish lives in deep canyons in the ocean and loves the darkness. It has a dark brown/dark grey colour. Underwater it collects a special type of bacteria that glows in the darkness and stores it in a little pouch at the bottom of its eye; it has an eyelid which can close to cover the bacteria and stop it from glowing. Once the fish opens its eyelid, however, the little pouch starts to glow (their usual state). Flashlight fish close their eyelids when a predator comes near them in order to leave him in darkness and escape.  

Mimic octopus

The mimic octopus is able to change its color, size, shape and form in order to scare other predators. For example, it can change to look like a sea snake or a starfish, both of whom are very dangerous and poisonous sea animals. It is reputed to be able to take the form of 15 other sea creatures. This type of octopus is found in Indonesia and in the Great Barrier Reef. It was first discovered in 1998.

Summary: Firstly, the mimic octopus can change its colour, size, shape and form to mimic 15 other sea creatures to scare predators away. Secondly, it lives in Indonesia and the Great Barrier Reef. Lastly, it was discovered in 1998.