You Don't Want To Touch a Tenrec

hi I'm Danielle Defoe and you're watching Animalia logic second-nature at a salon in San Mateo a noted hairstylist feathers is nest with original ideas like putting feathers on my ladies hairdo and calling it the parakeet stylish hair may not be the best survival strategy but weaponized hair that's another story some otherwise harmless animals have turned to their hair or fins into spikes and needles to defend themselves from potential predators in the present picture the pricking is the stimulus and the reaction is a quick withdrawal of the hand you're entering a world of pain these are nature's greatest spines and quills [Music] spines are one of nature's simplest and most effective forms of self-defense they're found in plants fungi and of course animals in most cases spines make an animal more noticeable they're still vulnerable to large predators but the hunters know they'll take home a painful souvenir if they decide to attack the energy used for the pricking is very small but the resulting reaction involves generally a much larger amount of energy this is characteristic of all manifestations of irritability this is the form of a poo semitism that makes the Predators learn from their pain and makes them less likely to attack another spiny prey item in mammals the most common form of spine are modified hairs these long tubes of keratin are not only sharp but they're designed for maximum suffering and damage the porcupine depends on the growing tops of trees for food but as he eats he deforms and may kill the tree porcupines have some of the gnarliest quills in the world a regular-sized individual has about 30,000 barbed quills each of them is perfectly engineered to puncture and get stuck in flesh when cornered porcupines will back into their predators and whack them with their spiky tail studies on North American porcupines have shown that the barbed quills only need half as much force to penetrate skin than a quill that has had its barbs removed but it takes four times more force to take it out than to take out a barbless quill easy on the way in hard on the way out don't mess with porcupines [Music] [Applause] there are tiny cousins the hedgehogs have a slightly different strategy their quills don't break off like a porcupines quills instead they're firmly attached to their skin so that when they roll into a ball they turn into adorably painful Launer cheon's hedgehogs have roughly 5,000 quills each of them so strong that you could lift a hedgehog by a single quill without breaking it not that you should only large predators like in Badgers are able to get through their defenses though foxes have been observed urinating on them to try and get them to open up echidnas have a similar strategy to hedgehogs even though their lineages diverged over a hundred and fifty million years ago they roll into spiky balls to protect their soft bellies their quills are thicker and more spread apart than those of porcupines and hedgehogs they're also filled with the foam like substance the result is an almost unbendable spine that makes predators wonder if echidna meat is worth the hassle too many predators the answer is unfortunately yes in Madagascar the spiny tenrecs are the kings of spines convergent evolution has made some species like the hedgehog tenrec look almost exactly like an actual hedgehog even though tenrecs are more closely related to elephants than to other spiky mammals their spines protect them from predators like fuzes and more amazingly they also play a part in communication one species the lowland streaked tenrec has a patch of specialised spines called stridulating quills that can be rubbed against each other to produce sound this is pretty similar to the way crickets make their chirps crickets are the Canaries of the insect world they thing by rubbing their wings together studies are still ongoing but it seems that spiny tenrecs use their sounds to communicate with each other while foraging and to warn predators that they're a painful snack this is the only known instance of stridulation the act of producing a sound by rubbing different body parts together in mammals I'll pause and let you make your jokes wild flagrant abuses of the god-given gift spines are a lot more common in reptiles than in mammals and here keratin is the most commonly used material found in Australia thorny dragons are easily the coolest spiky lizards they have spines all along their bodies and each of them is about the length of a thorn from a robes their excessive spines protect them from predators like large reptiles and birds of prey thorny dragons are easy to catch but not necessarily the kind of thing you want to go through your digestive system know well bill now you know what might have caused your stomachache why you feel so bad Yui you'll stay and you'll feel better they're cousins and neighbors the bearded dragons have evolved to look thorny their tiny keratin spines are unlikely to harm any predators their strategy consists simply of looking as unappetizing and aggressive as possible if a predator calls their bluff it's game over [Music] across the globe in Texas there are horned lizards with a similar strategy the creatively named Texas horned lizard have spines all along their bodies to startle their predators the spines in their head are actually made of bone which gives them their name though something tells me drogon would be more appropriate if their spikes don't scare off their predators they can also shoot blood out of their eyes most predators balk at the sight of blood jet streams but birds don't seem to mind at all like they're actually kind of into it in the insect world there are thousands of spiny species several stick and leaf insects have spines to accurately mimic thorny plants several caterpillar species have thorns often equipped with irritating agents to protect themselves a caterpillar is a growing up stage in the life of a moth or butterfly the caterpillar hatches from the egg and spends its time eating leaves my favorite though is the giant prickly stick insect this Australian species can be up to 20 centimetres long if spotted by a predator it adopts a threat pose making itself look like a scorpion in displaying its spines another badass prickly invertebrate is the spine spider also known as the spine Micro thena these tiny spiders are just about 1 centimeter long but they make up for their small size with amazing spines along their abdomen if you're ever hiking in the Rocky Mountains and walk through a spider web take a close look you might just be in the presence of one of the coolest little arachnids just make sure it doesn't go in your ears finally we go to the sea many fish species have spines which are often used to inject venom puffer fish advertise their toxicity with little spikes a single puffer fish has enough venom to kill over 20 adult men and there is no antidote lionfish are beautiful but deadly beneath those colourful fluttering draperies got sharp spying loaded with a poison which burns with an agonizing pain like liquid fire these killer Queens have 18 venomous spines that can easily kill predators only some super predators such as Bobbit worms mores and sharks can take them down in areas where they've become invasive such as the Caribbean they thrive due to the lack of effective predators sharks are being trained to kill them but they would rather go for less spicy prey last but not least we have the Magnificent sea urchins there are over a thousand species across the world their body plan is basically a sack of organs surrounded by moveable spines if touched by a predator or by an unsuspecting beach goer their spines perforate the skin once inside they break off and release venom this causes severe pain that can last for days so if you're ever at the beach make sure to wear Waiting shoes removing sea urchin spines from your toes don't like a crummy way to spend your holiday long underwater right arrive at the anemone spines are just one of the many ways that nature turned something as simple as hair into engineering marvels I'm constantly amazed at the biological innovations that over time completely change an animal's survival strategy some of those changes are so ingenious that they become the inspiration for human-made objects I'm no engineer myself but I do love learning how things work and today's episode sponsor brilliant org is one of my favorite ways of learning new things one of the courses that completely change the way that I look at the world is beautiful geometry it teaches you to come up with creative solutions to interesting problems and ever since I did it I see geometry everywhere there are no long lectures and the courses are full of interactive content that make it easier to learn you can even do the quizzes on your laptop or your phone to keep your mind sharp brilliant premium gives you access to all their content divided into easy-to-understand chunks you'll learn by solving problems which get more challenging as you go along if you want to learn more about the world go to brilliant org slash Animal Logic the first 200 people will get 20% off their brilliant premium subscription check out premium it's the most fun way to get smarter every day so what should I talk about next please let me know in the comments and be sure to subscribe for new episodes every week thanks for watching stay safe and see ya leopard skins hold her down while he completes the transformation to leopard woman is this the spot to say it's mighty Purdy [Music]

Channel: Animalogic

Views: 862,576

Keywords: animals, animal, logic, education, show, animalogic, crazy, ugly, weird, gross, beautiful, interesting, facts, animalsfacts, about, information, info, school, research, learn, learning, fun, easy, smart, Thorny Dragons, Porcupine, Echidna, Hedgehog, Lowland Tenrec, Bearded Dragons, Texas Horned Lizard, Caterpillars, Spined Spider, Puffer fish, Lionfish, Urchin, spikes, spines, thorns, thorny, spiky, pointy, dragon, drogon, horns, horned, defence

Id: dVnLRUXVW6U

Length: 12min 31sec (751 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 10 2020