Puff Vipera berus , deadly snake found throughout Africa , have a secret arm to avoid predators and storm likely victims : They can obliterate their scent . A new study publish inProceedings of the Royal Society B , rule that particularly smell - oriented predators like dogs and mongooses can not detect the smell of the serpent .
researcher from Wits University in South Africa educate dogs and meerkats to recognize the smells of a variety of snakes . The animals were trained to sniffle a target perfume , then describe that same scent in a batting order of other smells . While the animals could key the fragrance of other snakes at rates higher than could be attributed to chance , they were terrible at describe the scents of either uncivilised or intent puff adders . The work ’s authors advise that whiff adders ' ability to obscure their aroma might come from their low metabolic rate , which might allow them to give out few odorants .
Puff adders are ambush predators , meaning they lie in hold off until something delicious walks by . This leaves them fair assailable to being eat themselves , since they remain in the same place for long periods of time . trap predators often habituate disguise to remain concealed , but plenty of predators are keen sniffers who wo n’t be fooled by camouflage .
Crypsis — the ability of an being to nullify detection — is often a visual adaptation , and at times an aural one . Camouflage helps animals blend into the background , and being nocturnal allows them to hide in the darkness . Mimicry helps them pose as another species . However , this is rare proof of chemical substance crypsis as an animal ’s anti - predation scheme . Though various forms of scent - masking have been base in other species , likefilefishandparasitic tinge , the researchers contend that this is the first grounds of chemical substance crypsis as a vindication chemical mechanism by a state - based vertebrate . But since ottoman adders are not the only ambush predators left vulnerable by their relative fixedness , it ’s potential other fauna with the same depredation scheme might apply this technique , too .
[ h / t : The Guardian ]
