![]() Unlike many other viper species, copperheads do not try to make a quick getaway when they sense danger.If you see a copperhead, leave it alone! Allow it to continue on its way, undisturbed. Even though copperheads are venomous, they are normally calm snakes that only bite if stepped on or otherwise threatened. Copperheads bite more people each year than any other snake species in the United States.Young copperheads have yellow-tipped tails, which they use to attract small prey.Copperheads hibernate during the winter in dens with other snakes, some of different species. Young reach sexual maturity after four years. Gestation lasts between three and nine months, depending on whether the snake undergoes hibernation before giving birth.īetween two and ten young are in a single brood, depending on the female’s size. Copperheads are ovoviviparous, making fertilized eggs develop inside the female, nourished by a yolk, and young are born alive. Mating occurs in late spring to early summer, and can also occur in the fall. Opossums, raccoons and other snakes may also prey on copperheads. Owls and hawks are the copperhead’s main predators. Copperheads will inject venom to capture their prey, making it easier to swallow whole. The heat-sensing pit on their face helps in finding prey. Copperheads will hide and wait in one spot for suitable prey to approach before attacking. FeedingĬopperheads are carnivorous, eating mainly mice but also feeding on birds, snakes, amphibians and insects. The copperhead is a “pit-viper,” which refers to the heat-sensing pit located on its head between its eye and nostrils. Adult copperheads can reach about three feet in length. It has hourglass-shaped darker marks on its back. straeleni an advantage is still to be discovered, but it seems this imitator can disappear in a crowd.The copperhead has a broad, unmarked, copper-colored head and a reddish-tan colored body. ( Read about a cichlid that plays dead to attract scavenging prey.)Įxactly how the dupe gives P. straeleni actually preys on many different species of fish-and not those it impersonates. straeleni to sidle up and eat its look-alikes. It was previously thought that this resemblance allowed P. straeleni cichlid looks a lot like two other cichlid species in the lake. It usually takes three animals for misinformation to be communicated-the mimic, its model, and the target that receives the information.īut a 2015 study in Biology Letters describes a species of cichlid in East Africa's Lake Tanganyika that casts a much wider net. ( See more beautiful pictures of undersea camouflage.) Clever Cichlids The team, which published the encounter in the journal Coral Reefs, believes the orange lure may mimic the glowing worms as a bait-and-switch hunting tactic. On a recent night dive in Dauin, Philippines, De Brauwer and a colleague noticed frogfish lures that looked like fluorescent orange worms swimming nearby (watch video). “Frogfish are voracious ambush predators, and they eat pretty much anything that comes by and fits into their mouths,” says Maarten De Brauwer, a marine biologist at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. (Also see " Fish Mimics Mimic Octopus That Mimics Fish.") To hunt, a frogfish wiggles an appendage near its mouth that mimics tiny sea critters such as worms and shrimp, tasty tidbits for unsuspecting fish. Members of the anglerfish family, frogfish tend to stay put and blend into their shallow water habitats. (Related: " Bondage, Cannibalism, and Castration-Spiders' Wild Sex Lives.") Hungry Frogfish Instead of hooking up, the deceived spider is the main course for a deadly dinner date. A would-be mate-the predatory Portia-shakes a hanging leaf, attracting a female looking for love. Then there’s the Portia spider that Cross calls the femme fatale. (Other animals, such as snapping turtles, aquatic birds such as egrets, and aquatic snakes, sport tongue lures.) Scientists only recently discovered the behavior, the first time it's been recorded in terrestrial snakes. Take the South African puff adder Bitis arietans, which mimics an insect's movements by wagging its tongue slowly and deliberately to attract nearby amphibians. “The animal sends out a signal that is beneficial to the sender but disadvantageous to the receiver,” explains Cross, a former psychologist who's fascinated with the way hunters “play mind games with prey.” ( Find the animal mimics in this National Geographic interactive.) In other words, an animal pretends to be another animal to dupe and lure prey close enough for chomping. “It’s a form of deception that we call aggressive mimicry,” says Fiona Cross, a zoologist at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. But in the actual wild, misleading communication techniques are means to meals for many species. These days, misinformation is a term that’s wildly thrown around.
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