AT5s #5

Hello internet. Today I will be listing the top five best (or rather, most effective) defenses in the world. Now I know the pattern of the basis of posting the AT5s is off a little bit. It's usually two regular posts then one AT5s post after, but it's been off. Sorry about that. But let's go on.


5. The Spitting Cobra(s)
All snakes bite. Some are venomous that can inject venom through their fangs. Some can even spit this venom at predators. That's right. Spitting cobras can spit venom through contraction of muscles in the venom glands. While the venom isn't harmful to intact human skin, it can cause permanent blindness if the venom contacts the eye.


4. Horned Lizard
Horned lizards have a lot of defense mechanisms. First, it uses its body coloration as camouflage. If approached too closely, they generally run in short bursts and stop abruptly to confuse the predator. If this fails, they puff up their bodies to cause them to appear larger, thus making them more difficult to swallow.  At least four species are also able to squirt an aimed stream of blood from the corners of the eyes for a distance of up to five feet! The blood is used to confuse the predator, but it also is foul-tasting to some predators.

3. The Carpenter Ant

Now you may not expect much from ants, but this little guy sure is an exception. When in a fight or cornered by a much bigger and superior enemy and there's no hope of surviving, the ant goes to as close to the enemy as possible and literally explodes itself by rupturing its skin and spraying toxins all over the place in hopes of a successful kamikaze.


2. The Bombardier Beetle

Basically the equivalent of a fire breathing dragon, but the "fire" comes out of the other hole. When threatened, two chambers within the beetle's body open and mix the two chemicals in a bigger chamber. The mixing of these two chemicals creates a violent reaction and comes out of the beetle's anus. The temperature is of the mixture is around boiling point.

1. The Pistol Shrimp
Imagine a gun. Now imagine the gun in the shape of a lobster claw. Now imagine if the "bullet" was actually sound created by the snapping of the claw. This is somewhere close of how a pistol shrimp "snapping" defense works. First it opens the claw when the prey is nearby. Then, it quickly shuts the claw, creating a cavitation bubble that is high in pressure and can reach temperatures as high as the surface of the Sun. In fact, the pressure and temperature of the cavitation bubble is so high that it creates sonoluminescence (where sound itself creates light)!

Interesting fact of the day: Tea is said to have been discovered in 2737 BC by a Chinese emperor when some tea leaves accidentally blew into a pot of boiling water.