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{"id":2053,"date":"2010-03-10T00:00:30","date_gmt":"2010-03-10T08:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wild-facts.com\/?p=2053"},"modified":"2015-01-15T19:54:14","modified_gmt":"2015-01-16T00:54:14","slug":"wild-fact-858-a-thorn-in-my-side-thorny-devil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/2010\/wild-fact-858-a-thorn-in-my-side-thorny-devil\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild Fact #858 – A Thorn in My Side – Thorny Devil"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Before we get into today’s Wild Fact, I have a little bit of housekeeping to take care of.\u00a0 First of all I wanted to thank Larissa over at Reef Botanicals<\/a> for presenting Wild Facts with the Sunshine Award.\u00a0 Your support is greatly appreciated, Larissa.\u00a0 Secondly, I wanted to let all of you know that Wild Facts was featured on Daily Planet which aired last night on the Discovery Channel.\u00a0 I will post details and link to the show once it is posted online.\u00a0 Thank you to Margo Losier for recommending Wild Facts to the producers at Daily Planet. I have to admit, I feel very honoured to have Wild Facts featured on such an amazing television program about Science and Technology.\u00a0 All right, let’s get onto Wild Fact #858!<\/p>\n

Today we are going to talk about a little Australian lizard called the Thorny Devil. They may look like the deadliest animal in the world, however, these lizards are only about 15-20 cm (5.9-8″) long. Although they may not be deadly to us, I would hate to be an ant in Australia with these guys kicking around.\u00a0 The thorny devil is capable of consuming about 3000 ants in one sitting! Imagine the fear that would strike the little ants when they see the deadly, thorny lizard approaching. My guess is you would hear faint cries of “Godzilla!\u00a0 Godzilla!”.<\/p>\n

Besides the incredibly cool appearance of the thorny devil they also have two adaptations that are absolutely mind boggling.\u00a0 The first has to do with their method of consuming water.\u00a0 Most people just go to the tap and pour themselves a glass.\u00a0 Actually, who am I kidding, these days most people just grab a bottle of water out of the fridge.\u00a0 Well, the thorny devil simply walks through dew-filled grass and shrubs.\u00a0 You see, this particular lizard is able to drink water no matter where it hits them on their body.\u00a0 They have these tiny little grooves all over their body that direct the water to their mouth.\u00a0 Once the water lands on them they will begin gulping which causes the water to move towards their mouth using a capillary action.\u00a0 Imagine how much water they would be able to drink when they are swimming or in the shower.<\/p>\n

The second adaptation is one of our usual defense mechanisms.\u00a0 When a predator actually wants to try and consume this spikey little lizard they will have a tough time finding its head.\u00a0 You see the thorny devil hides its real head and exposes a fake, spike-filled head which is located on their back.\u00a0 As you can imagine the predator will be very surprised if it tries to attack the ball of spikes.\u00a0 This isn’t one of those\u00a0 good surprises either.<\/p>\n

If you just can’t get enough of the Thorny Devils then I suggest checking out the video below.\u00a0 It is just a short clip from National Geographic that discusses both adaptations I mentioned in today’s post.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Well, I guess that is all I have to say about the Thorny Devil.\u00a0 Be sure to check back tomorrow for another interesting Wild Fact or if you would like to receive Wild Facts in your e-mail then just sign up at the top right corner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before we get into today’s Wild Fact, I have a little bit of housekeeping to take care of.\u00a0 First of all I wanted to thank Larissa over at Reef Botanicals for presenting Wild Facts with the Sunshine Award.\u00a0 Your support is greatly appreciated, Larissa.\u00a0 Secondly, I wanted to let all of you know that Wild Facts was featured on Daily Planet which aired last night on the Discovery Channel.\u00a0 I will post details and link to the show once it is posted online.\u00a0 Thank you to Margo Losier for recommending Wild Facts to the producers at Daily Planet. I have <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4024,52],"tags":[348,4025,595,594,592,596,593,258],"yoast_head":"\nAdaptations of the Thorny Devil<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Describes a couple of unique adaptations the thorny devil has evolved in order to consume water and protect themselves from predators.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/2010\/wild-fact-858-a-thorn-in-my-side-thorny-devil\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Adaptations of the Thorny Devil\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Describes a couple of unique adaptations the thorny devil has evolved in order to consume water and protect themselves from predators.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/2010\/wild-fact-858-a-thorn-in-my-side-thorny-devil\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Animal Facts For Kids | Wild Facts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-03-10T08:00:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-01-16T00:54:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/ThornyDevil.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"722\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nathan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nathan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/2010\/wild-fact-858-a-thorn-in-my-side-thorny-devil\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/2010\/wild-fact-858-a-thorn-in-my-side-thorny-devil\/\",\"name\":\"Adaptations of the Thorny Devil\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-03-10T08:00:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-01-16T00:54:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5129f3f0129e9989a2b850bb2f3cc4\"},\"description\":\"Describes a couple of unique adaptations the thorny devil has evolved in order to consume water and protect themselves from predators.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/2010\/wild-fact-858-a-thorn-in-my-side-thorny-devil\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/\",\"name\":\"Animal Facts For Kids | Wild Facts\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5129f3f0129e9989a2b850bb2f3cc4\",\"name\":\"Nathan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wild-facts.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/0.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e126172d6ffd6e322bd2cea79f2ad95?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/0.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e126172d6ffd6e322bd2cea79f2ad95?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Nathan\"},\"description\":\"I am a digital nomad who enjoys travelling around the globe while inspiring others to leave their comfort zone and improve their life. 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