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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956.

Kangaroo rats are abundant and seemingly defenseless seed-eating rodents that have to contend with a host of nasty predators, including rattlesnakes -- venomous pit vipers well known for their deadly, lightning-quick strikes.

Research by a student-led team from UC Riverside, San Diego State University, and UC Davis now shows that desert kangaroo rats frequently foil snakes through a combination of fast reaction times, powerful evasive leaps, and mid-air, ninja-style kicks.

[...] Timothy Higham, an associate professor in the Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology at UCR, is a coauthor on two papers published today in Functional Ecology and the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society that present detailed analyses of the behaviors and biomechanics of both kangaroo rats and rattlesnakes.

"Both rattlesnakes and kangaroo rats are extreme athletes, with their maximum performance occurring during these interactions," Higham said. "This makes the system excellent for teasing apart the factors that might tip the scale in this arms race."

[...] A blink of the human eye can last just 150 milliseconds. In contrast, the research team found that the rattlesnakes frequently launched from absolute stillness to reach the kangaroo rats in less than 100 milliseconds. The researchers were surprised to find that the kangaroo rats turned out to be even faster, with typical reaction times around 70 milliseconds. Their data indicate that some kangaroo rats initiated jumps within just 38 milliseconds of a snake starting its strike.

"Kangaroo rats that responded quickly were frequently able to jump clear of the snake completely, leaving the serpent biting nothing but dust as the kangaroo rat rocketed 7-8 body lengths into the air," said Rulon Clark, an associate professor of biology at San Diego State University and a coauthor on both research papers. "But in perhaps the most surprising finding of our research, kangaroo rats that did not react quickly enough to avoid the strike had another trick up their sleeves: they often were able to avoid being envenomated by reorienting themselves in mid-air and using their massive haunches and feet to kick the snakes away, ninja-style."

Videos:

• Kangaroo rat defensive kicking of rattlesnake while jumping.
• Rattlesnake strike at kangaroo rat comes up short.
• Kangaroo rat kicking rattlesnake in midair.
• Complex maneuvers of kangaroo rat avoiding rattlesnake.
• Kangaroo rat dodges rattlesnake strike.
• Kangaroo rat mid-air maneuver via tail rotation.
• Kangaroo rats kick-fighting.

Journal References:

1. Malachi D. Whitford, Grace A. Freymiller, Timothy E. Higham, Rulon W. Clark. Determinants of predation success: How to survive an attack from a rattlesnake. Functional Ecology, 2019; DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.13318
2. Grace A Freymiller, Malachi D Whitford, Timothy E Higham, Rulon W Clark. Escape dynamics of free-ranging desert kangaroo rats (Rodentia: Heteromyidae) evading rattlesnake strikes. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2019; DOI: 10.1093/biolinnean/blz027

Also at Science News, c|net, and phys.org.

Original Submission