The human stage has seen many a hammy staged death, but few quite as dramatic as those that occur in the animal kingdom every day.
The ability to play dead, otherwise known as tonic immobility or ‘thanatosis’, is found in a wide range of animals, including insects, crustaceans, amphibians, mammals, birds and fish.
This is different to the freezing behaviour that some animals show as part of the fight or flight response. During tonic immobility, the animal becomes temporarily paralysed and shows no obvious response to external stimuli.
- Fight or flight response: what it is and why it's key for survival
- Animals that battle to the death – whether it's for territory, dominance or survival
Which animals fake their own death?
And the Academy Award for the best faked death goes to… the one and only North American marsupial, the opossum!
When it feels threatened, the cat-sized black and white creature will keel over and fall to the ground, catatonic. With globs of saliva dripping from an open mouth, lifeless eyes stare into the abyss.
So committed is the possum to its role, that it even goes the extra mile, secreting a matcha-coloured substance from its anal gland that smells of rotting flesh.
The RADA-trained ham will then stay this way for minutes to hours – as long as it takes to persuade its predators, such as bobcats and large hawks, that it is indeed not worth eating.
In this instance, tonic immobility has evolved to aid survival. Cue applause all round.
Another reason that some animals fake their own death is to avoid having sex. Things can get quite intense during the breeding season of the common frog, where males frequently outnumber females in the ponds where they meet.
- Common frog guide: how to identify, what they eat, and how to help them
- Toad vs frog: what’s the difference?
In the frenzy to mate, females can find themselves set upon by multiple suitors, leading to dangerous ‘mating balls’ (not a euphemism) of frogs, where females can be held too tightly and risk drowning. If wriggling around and making a release call fails, then the females are left with no other option.
They extend their stiff limbs away from their body and stay stock still until the males lose interest. So, this also is a survival strategy.
- Deadly is the female: ferocious female animals that you wouldn't want to mess with
- "Females should prefer to mate with older males because they work harder and care less about infidelity."
If you think that playing dead is something that only other species do, I point you towards advice from the United States National Park Service: “If you are attacked by a brown/grizzly bear, leave your pack on and PLAY DEAD.”
Think possum. Think frog. And it just might save your life!
