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Article: Award-winning survival skills: how animals elude prey. (Life science: animal defenses/adaptations).(Cover Story)
- Article from:
- Science World
- Article date:
- November 8, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Scholastic, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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It's a dog-eat-dog world out there--not to mention a snake-eat-lizard world. To survive and reproduce, every creature must avoid becoming another predator's meal. But how to elude a hungry hunter who's bigger or faster than you?
Animals use some positively award-worthy strategies called defenses. "An animal's defenses are all that stand between being alive and being eaten," says biologist Tom Tregenza at the University of Leeds in the UK. The newly discovered mimic octopus, for example, fools marauders by impersonating an entire cast of less tempting prey. The flexible three-banded armadillo rolls itself up into a ball as impenetrable as an armored truck.