5 animals that fake their deaths

Fire-bellied toads

These small frogs put on quite a show while playing dead. When under threat, they arch their backs and contort their limbs to show vivid yellow or orange markings on their feet and belly, acting as a warning signal. “It’s a warning not to eat them because they’ve got these strong toxins in their skin,” Andrew Gray, curator of herpetology at the Manchester Museum, United Kingdom, told the National Geographic.

Hognose snakes

Found in North America, hognose snakes take their “death” performance to the next level. In addition to lying motionless, they emit a foul-smelling fluid from their anal glands thanatosis, and may even release blood. “They’re trying to send the message that something’s wrong with them,” said Gray, explaining the snake’s dramatic death-feigning routine.

American opossum

North America’s Virginia opossum is the most famous death faker. When threatened, it bares its teeth, sticks out its tongue, defecates, and emits a noxious odour, mimicking the smell of a rotting corpse, as per the National Geographic. These opossums can remain in this state for hours, effectively convincing predators that they’re already dead and not worth the effort.

Nursery web spider

This spider uses playing dead as a strategy not for survival, but for sex. According to the National Geographic, the male nursery web spider offers a silk-wrapped insect to a female. If she tries to steal the gift without mating, he plays dead, clutching the gift tightly.

“It seems as if death-feigning and hanging on to the gift allows him to stay close to the female,” said Trine Bilde, an evolutionary ecologist at Aarhus University in Denmark. Once she begins feeding, the male snaps out of his act and mates.

Livingston’s cichlid

These cunning predators from Lake Malawi in East Africa fake death not to avoid being eaten, but to catch a meal. Livingston’s cichlids descend to the lake’s floor, lie motionless on their sides, mimicking dead fish to lure in unsuspecting scavengers, and then strike at the right moment.

Some species of cichlids specialise in this ambush tactic, using stillness as a deadly form of deception.