here<\/a>. Don’t get me wrong, that is a pretty fascinating defense mechanism but I think today’s animal is even more unique.<\/p>\nThe short horned lizard can be found in deserts from North to Central America. Because of their rounded shaped they are often referred to as the horny toad or horned toad but in reality are actually a lizard.\u00a0 Even though the short horned lizard appears to be well protected by all of their spikes they tend to have numerous predators.\u00a0 Animals such as coyotes, snakes, roadrunners (beep beep), hawks, lizards and dogs all feast on these little lizards. So how can the short horned lizard ward off such large predators? Well, they have several strategies depending on the risk level. First and foremost the colour of their skin allows them to blend in very well to their environment.\u00a0 Let’s face it, if you can’t be found then it will be tough for you to be eaten. The next two adaptations are a lot more fun and exciting. So if they are spotted and need to defend against a predator the lizard is able to inflate it’s body to twice it’s size.\u00a0 This makes the lizard look like a big spiny balloon. If this technique fails to thwart the attempts of their attacker then they will employ the ultimate strategy.\u00a0 You sitting down?\u00a0 Some species of horned lizards are able to direct a stream of blood from their eyes to distract the threat while they make their getaway.\u00a0 They are able to do this by rupturing tiny blood vessels in their eyelids.\u00a0 Besides confusing the predator the blood contains a chemical that is noxious for dogs, coyotes and wolves.\u00a0 Unfortunately this strategy does not work well on the flying threats.<\/p>\n
Short Horned Lizard Fast Fact: <\/strong>The short horned lizard is able to squirt blood from their eyes up to a distance of 1 m (3 feet).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yesterday we discussed an animal that will actually blow itself up to prevent predators from harming their colony.\u00a0 If you didn’t get a chance to read it yet then I recommend checking it out here. Don’t get me wrong, that is a pretty fascinating defense mechanism but I think today’s animal is even more unique. The short horned lizard can be found in deserts from North to Central America. Because of their rounded shaped they are often referred to as the horny toad or horned toad but in reality are actually a lizard.\u00a0 Even though the short horned lizard appears <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4024,52],"tags":[348,226,361,362,171,363,4025,243,360,4027],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>