Learning to summarise.

The hairy frog defends itself by breaking it’s

 Stay Away From Me

Pink for main Ideas.

All living things are part of the food chain. They are constantly searching for other living things to feed on while desperately trying to stop other things from eating them. They have learned ways to behave and have the body parts they need to protect themselves and their families from predators. Some have hard shells and spikes which make them hard to eat. Others have sharp teeth and razor sharp claws, or they can run very fast. Here are three interesting ways that animals avoid being someone else’s dinner. 

The Texas horned lizard has a startling method of defending itself. If it feels threatened it is able to squirt streams of blood from its eyes, usually aimed at the mouth or the eyes of the predator. If the predator has the lizard in its mouth it will drop it and try to wipe off the blood allowing the lizard to escape. The blood also has an unpleasant taste. Many animals have learnt to avoid bad tastes, as they often mean poison.  

The opossum is famous for a most cunning trick to avoid being someone else’s dinner. It is called “playing dead”, but the truth is it is not a trick. When in extreme danger the opossum gets so anxious that it will collapse and appear to be very dead. It will remain in this state for hours. It also gives off a very unappetising dead smell. This is usually enough to discourage most predators who prefer to eat fresh meat that they have killed themselves. 

Then there is a special termite who will give up its life to protect the nest it belongs to. When danger approaches, the oldest members of the nest are sent out as suicide bombers. They are no longer any use for the work in the nest. But during their life they have been storing a special liquid in a pouch on their back. As the enemy approaches, the termite will

squeeze the pouch making it explode. This sends a sticky liquid over the enemy which kills it. Unfortunately it also kills the termite. 

 Some species of sea cucumber will defend itself by ejecting sticky tubes over a potential predator which the potential predator will entangle themselves in while other species of sea cucumber spew out their internal organs which they grow back.       

The hairy frog defends itself by breaking it’s hind toe bones which come out like cat claws and retract back when the threat is gone.

The sabre tooth tiger protected itself by attacking the enemy with it’s long, sharp canines. This meant that many creatures didn’t mess with it. Unfortunately the Dire Wolf was smart enough to attack the smilodon.