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Tonic immobility (also known as the act of feigning death, or exhibiting thanatosis) is a behaviour in which some animals become apparently temporarily paralysed and unresponsive to external stimuli. Tonic immobility is most generally considered to be an anti-predator behavior because it occurs most often in response to an extreme threat such ...
Distraction displays frequently take the form of injury-feigning. [4] However, animals may also imitate the behavior of a small rodent or alternative prey item for the predator; [13] [14] [15] imitate young [12] or nesting behaviors such as brooding (to cause confusion as to the true location of the nest), [13] mimic foraging behaviors away ...
Many prey animals, and to defend against seed predation also seeds of plants, [55] make use of poisonous chemicals for self-defence. [51] [56] These may be concentrated in surface structures such as spines or glands, giving an attacker a taste of the chemicals before it actually bites or swallows the prey animal: many toxins are bitter-tasting ...
At the third level, the deceptive behaviour is at least partially learnt, as when a bird puts on a distraction display, feigning injury to lure a predator away from a nest. Fourth level deception involves recognition of the other animal's beliefs, as when a chimpanzee tactically misleads other chimpanzees to prevent their discovering a food source.
Adults will defend their nests by feigning injury to distract potential predators from their eggs and young, known as the "broken wing" act. [10] Hawaiian stilts are cooperative breeders. Juveniles have been recorded defending the nests of their parents and grandparents, and unrelated adults have been observed incubating the nests of other adults.
A nocturnal animal, the striped hyena typically only emerges in complete darkness, and is quick to return to its lair before sunrise. [10] Although it has a habit of feigning death when attacked, it has been known to stand its ground against larger predators in disputes over food. [11]
Most scavenging animals are facultative scavengers that gain most of their food through other methods, especially predation. Many large carnivores that hunt regularly, such as hyenas and jackals , but also animals rarely thought of as scavengers, such as African lions , leopards , and wolves will scavenge if given the chance.
Death-feigning behavior has been observed in this species: In captivity all of these, when handled, dropped on their back and remained immobile for around 35–45 seconds. During this period the animal becomes stiff, stretching out its fore and hind limbs.