Pangolin

You can run into your house and slam the door to escape a threatening stranger, but there are no brick houses for animals to hide in. Instead, some creatures have built-in, rock-hard homes to crawl inside of. The pangolin, one of the oddest-looking mammals on the planet, has a suit of armor made of bony scales covering most of its body. When the pangolin is threatened by predators, it rolls itself up into a ball of tough scales, leaving the puzzled predator looking elsewhere for its meal.

Fooled Ya!

Opossum

When this marsupial feels threatened, it foams at the mouth to fool predators into thinking it’s terribly sick — and therefore not the best choice for a meal. When an opossum is in severe danger, it goes into a comatose state, fooling predators into thinking that it’s already dead. The opossum also emits an awful smell to drive away even the hungriest meat eaters.

Camouflage

One of the most common ways for animals to hide from stronger animals is by blending into their environment, making them very difficult to detect.

The stick bug and leaf-tailed gecko

I challenge you to spot these creatures in forests filled with branches and leaves! The stick bug and leaf-tailed gecko do such a good job at disguising themselves as just another leaf or stick in the forest, they are hardly detectable.

Chameleon

If you think you’re seeing things when the cute little lizard you spotted in the tree suddenly disappears, you’re probably not. The chameleon has an amazing ability to change its colors to hues that blend in seamlessly with the environment. While some chameleons can change from the color gray to brown or green, others can transform their skin to just about any color in as little as 20 seconds.

Porcupinefish

When the porcupine fish is getting attacked, it swallows mouthfuls of water or air and then puffs itself up to double its size. It also has jagged spines on its skin, which protrude outward like sharp spikes. Most prey reconsider after watching this timid little fish turn into a spiked monstrosity.

Sea cucumber

Want to squeeze into that great hiding spot, but it looks a tad too narrow? No problem, just turn yourself into mush and that should do it! The sea cucumber, a cucumber-shaped creature that lives on the bottom of the sea, wins a prize for its amazing ability to turn itself into mush, scatter itself into little pieces, or harden its body into tough armor. If that doesn’t work to scare away prey, the sea cucumber releases poisons from its body and ejects the insides of its stomach to fool predators into thinking it’s dead.

(Excerpted from Mishpacha Jr., Issue 742)