When you boil it down , evolution is nothing but a biologic arms race , allowing organisms to continually upgrade their anatomic arsenal to gain the upper hand in the unvarying fight for survival . At just a few inches tall , thekangaroo ratmay not like a shot look to put up much of a probability in this Battle Royale , but researchers have been left stunned by the ninja - similar capableness that these small gnawer have developed to defend themselves fromrattlesnakes .
Until now , scientists had little idea as to how these petite creatures , native to the western US , manage to thrive in spite of the fact that they share their territory with rattler . get laid for theirrapid attacks , the serpent make short work of most of their prey , yet have been known to repeatedly fail in their attempt to hound kangaroo betrayer .
To try and understand how the rats manage to keep evading the Fang of their redoubtable foe , researchers from The University of California Riverside used high - swiftness cameras to observe interaction between the two metal money in the wild . As these video show , the noteworthy agility of the kangaroo puke left the snake in the grass with small chance of charm a bite to use up . These astonishing finding have also been document in two separate academic papers , appearing inFunctional EcologyandThe Biological Journal of the Linnean Society .
The slowed - down footage reveals how the squealer are able to spring out from the Snake in as slight as 70 milliseconds , which is less than half of the time it takes a human eye to wink . Given that rattlesnakes are no slouches and often take just 100 milliseconds to set in motion an attack , it was always go to take something special from the rats to pull in the upper hand in this affaire d’honneur .
“ Kangaroo rat that responded rapidly were frequently able to jump-start decipherable of the snake completely , leaving the serpent biting nothing but dust as the kangaroo rat rocketed 7 - 8 trunk lengths into the air , " explained study source Rulon Clark in astatement .
" But in perhaps the most surprising finding of our inquiry , kangaroo rats that did not oppose quickly enough to debar the hit had another trick up their sleeve : they often were able to keep off being envenomated by reorienting themselves in mid - air and using their monolithic haunch and base to kick the snake in the grass away , ninja - style . "
The studies describe these manoeuvre in great detail , recounting how one kangaroo informer “ flipped onto its back , used its hind leg to kick the rattlesnake ’s head away , and then rotated back upright and jump away , all in under 250 milliseconds . ” In this mode , 12 of the lowlife were capable to remove the rattlesnakes ’ fang before the reptilian had a chance to bring out its venom . Of these 12 , eight survive the attack .
In termination , the study author claim that bipedalism probably germinate in the kangaroo rat to enable “ speedy and powerful vertical leaping that are crucial for avoiding ambuscade predator , such as vipers and owls . ”
