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Each day, brilliant creatures meet in mortal combat, locked in a struggle for survival.
But the winner of these battles isn’t always the animal you’d expect it to be. |
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This lion can take down a wildebeest with just one swipe of their giant paws.
They can also carry up to 500kg of meat – twice their own weight –between those powerful jaws!
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On the plains of Africa, the lion is truly the king of the beasts.
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So what happens when a lion attacks a porcupine, which can be found on the plains of Africa searching for berries and food to eat?
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If you think the lion would just eat the porcupine, you’d be wrong!
Because the porcupine has a special defence system – spines!
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They might not look much, but they’re needle sharp.
They’re long, strong and the porcupine’s back is covered in them.
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Look how easily the spine of a porcupine can be pierced into a watermelon.
That’s how sharp they are!
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When feeling threatened, the porcupine will raise up those spines and run backwards into the lion, piercing the flesh with those needle sharp spines!
This should give the porcupine time to escape.
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To make things worse, the porcupine leaves the spines digging into the lion’s skin!
They’re extremely difficult to get out and very, very painful too.
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So, if the lion did attack a porcupine, it would probably think twice before doing it again. |
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The lion isn’t the only animal that would be in for a surprise if it tried to attack another deadly creature.
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What about when a meerkat meets a scorpion? Or when a poisonous snake attacks a kookaburra?
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Well, the scorpion has a brilliant way of defending itself – venom!
It uses a dagger-like needle on the end of its tail to inject the deadly poison.
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But the meerkat has a surprise in store for the scorpion.
Although the scorpion has a venomous defence, it doesn’t work against the meerkat!
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That’s because the meerkats have developed an immunity against scorpion venom.
They can be stung repeatedly, but don’t get poisoned.
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What about the kookaburra and the snake?
Well, in the wild, kookaburras like Bruce here actually eat poisonous snakes.
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They don’t have immunity like meerkats do, so how do they make sure they don’t get killed themselves? |
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The kookaburra grabs the snake with its beak right behind its head so tightly that the snake can’t move and certainly can’t turn round to bite! |
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The kookaburra actually kills the snake by hitting it against tree branches.
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Three examples of creature combat where the winner isn’t always the one you’d expect it to be!
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