The animal realm is as ruthless as it is compassionate, as peculiar as it beautiful, as fascinating as it is perplexing. As a result of the fierce competition, species have evolved some of the most bizarre, incredible, and odd defense mechanisms. Below are a few instances of these one-of-a-kind creatures.

HORNED LIZARD

A number of predators prey on desert horned lizards in North America. As an unusual survival tactic, blood is pumped into their ocular sinuses, the tissues beneath their eyes. When a horned lizard is confronted by a predator, it will, as a defensive weapon, spew blood from its flooded sinuses and eye sockets. As a result, the predator usually becomes scared and flees. The lizard uses this approach to clean foreign particles from the surface of its eyes. It has the ability to strike a four-feet-long blood stream.  this process can be repeated multiple times in a short span of time if essential.

green basilisk lizard

Famed for its exceptional ability to run on water, this unique lizard is ‘The green basilisk lizard’  also referred to as a plumed or double-crested basilisk. Green basilisks can be found in Central America’s tropical rain forests, from southern Mexico to Panama. They spend a lot of time in the woods and are seldom far from a waterway. When startled, they fall from the tree into the water and dash through the water at a rate of about 5 feet per second.

Long toes on its back foot, together with skin fringes that unfurl in the water and enhance the surface area, are what allows them to perform this incredible feat. They strike their wide feet into the water with power and immediately rotate their legs, generating a tiny air pocket that saves them from sinking as long as they remain going. They can travel up to 15 feet along the surface as a result of this. The basilisk uses its incredible swimming abilities to stay airborne until gravity finally catches up with it. Green basilisks, members of the iguana family, grow to a height of about 2 feet, including their long, whip-like tail.

Male seahorses

Male seahorses (and their near cousins) are the only male animals in the animal kingdom that can become pregnant and give birth to children. Male seahorses carry the eggs but do not produce them. The female seahorse places her eggs into the male’s pouch after the male and female have spent time mating. After that, the male fertilizes the eggs in the pouch.  Their pouch gives oxygen and nourishment to the maturing eggs while also regulating temperature, blood circulation, and salinity. Male seahorses normally carry their eggs for 2 to 4 weeks, depending on the species and can give birth to 100 to 1,000 babies.

Cymothoa exigua

Cymothoa exigua is a parasitic isopod that is born male but can change sex later in life. The parasites penetrate a host fish’s gills and establish a stronghold to grow. The female then crawls out of the gills and latches onto the fish’s tongue. This is where things start to go horribly wrong. It penetrates the tongue and begins sucking blood as a source of nutrition, progressively getting larger and larger until it inhabits a huge portion of the mouth. It doesn’t drink enough to kill the fish, but she drinks enough that the parasite’s tongue dries away and falls off, putting the parasite as a faux in its stead. The fish lives on, with the infiltrator ingesting whatever the host consumes.

TERMITES

In the rainforests of French Guiana, a termite species appears to take selflessness to a new level by growing sacks of dangerous blue liquid that they blow up on their enemies in a suicidal deed of self-sacrifice. Neocapritermes taracua’s “explosive backpacks” are filled with blue crystals secreted over the course of their life by a specialized pair of glands on their abdomens. Older workers carry the heaviest and most dangerous backpacks.