Two different individuals exhibiting DF with and without autohaemorrhaging (AH) (green morph, without AH (a), blotched individual with AH (b). Credit: Bjelica and Golubović, 2024

These dramatic snakes fake their own deaths, complete with oozing blood effects

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Dice snakes, which are found across Europe and into Asia, fake their own deaths to avoid predators, and now researchers have found that by including some convincing dramatic effects such as smearing themselves with poo and oozing blood from their mouths, they can spend less time faking their deaths than their less convincing cousins. Of 263 dice snakes, 124 made the display more convincing by smearing themselves with musk or faeces, and 28 secreted blood from their mouths. The snakes that used these extra dramatic flourishes spent approximately two seconds less time faking their own deaths.

Journal/conference: Biology Letters

Research: Paper

Organisation/s: University of Belgrade, Serbia

Funder: This research was funded by the Prespa-Ohrid Nature Trustand the Aage V. Jensen Foundation via PrespaNet’s “Prespa Project(2021– 2024),” the Rufford Foundation (grant no. 30090–1), and theMinistry of Education, Science and Technological Development of theRepublic of Serbia (grants nos. 451–03-0133012020–14/2627, 451–03-9/2021–14/ 200178, 451–03-68/2022–14/ 200007).

Media release

From: The Royal Society

Synergistic effects of musking and autohemorrhaging on the duration of death feigning in dice snakes (Natrix tessellata)

Natural selection favors combinations of antipredator defenses that work together to enhance prey survival. An especially interesting antipredator defence is death feigning (DF), present in a wide variety of taxa and usually characterized by the prey lying motionless often along with defecation, musking, and autohaemorrhaging. All these aspects of DF should work in conjunction with one another, intensifying the overall effect of the display and in turn facilitating quicker escape. We tested this hypothesis directly in the field and found that that snakes combined DF with behaviors like musking and autohaemorrhaging (AH) spent less time feigning death. This suggests that these behaviors have synergistic effects, intensifying the display and reducing exposure time to predators.

Over my dead body – When feigning death to deter predators, soiling yourself and coughing blood may yield quicker results. Dice snakes (Natrix tessellate) employ a number of tactics to avoid predation, including lying motionless to feign death. Out of 263 snakes, 124 made the display more convincing by smearing musk or faeces, and 28 secreted blood from the mouth. Snakes that employed these extra defences spent less time feigning death, suggesting these behaviours have synergistic effects. [Images available] Biology Letters.

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