Page 37 - World of Animals - Issue #30
P. 37
Nature’s most cunning
Margays mimic
baby monkeys to
trick the adults
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The margay, a small jungle cat, likely that this is why the felines
is known to use a rather cruel came up with their ploy to
trick while hunting for food. mimic the monkeys, emitting a
It pretends to be a panicked high-pitched squeal that sounds
baby monkey, alarming nearby enough like a baby tamarin to
parents and causing them to worry their relatives. When they
run straight into the path of the run down from the branches to
prowling predator. inspect the situation, the margay
Although they are skilled pounces. Scientists think that
climbers, margays find it tricky other cats, such as jaguars,
to chase agile creatures like might also mimic their prey in
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t tamarins through the trees. It is t this way.
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“When the tamarin runs
down from the branches
to inspect the situation,
the margay pounces”
Black seadevils use luminous
fishing rods to tempt their prey
Some of our planet’s most bizarre depths, other creatures can
creatures live in the ocean, and only see a bobbing pinprick
the black seadevil is no exception. of light. Suspecting a tasty
This fiendish deep-sea dweller is a snack, they swim up to it – a
type of anglerfish, named aer the fatal error. The seadevil strikes
light-emitting organs attached to out with its extendable jaws,
their heads. The seadevil uses its swallowing the hapless victim.
glowing appendage (known as a Like a snake, it can gorge on
photophore) like a fishing rod, dangling creatures more than twice its size –
it temptingly in front of its enormous, useful in the deep sea, where meals
toothy mouth. In the dark ocean are oen few and far between.
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