Page 80 - World of Animals - Deadly Predators

ANGLERFISH

This animal lives up to its name by drawing in prey with a lure

that hangs from its forehead

Words Amy Grisdale

8 families of anglerfish exist within luminous invertebrate, and it flits from side and are the only ones with the tempting
the order lophiiform, all of them to side in front of the predator’s waiting esca lure. The male fuses to the female over
carnivores. The entire group consists mouth. Prey wander over to investigate, but time, and soon connects to the female’s
of just over 320 bizarre species, they find themselves ambushed before they skin and bloodstream. All of his internal
1 from Needlebeard seadevils to know what’s hit them. organs disappear except those necessary
footballfishes. Some can grow to one metre Because it’s so hard to find another for reproduction. Six or more males can
(three feet) long, while others barely make member of your own species in the black attach to a fertile female, and having a
it past two centimetres (0.8 inches), but abyss, anglerfish are almost always in pairs. few live-in lovers helps the anglerfish
even the smallest are deadly. They gorge Females are large, but their partners are forget about mating and
on shrimp and bony fish when they get the incredibly small. Males have been shaped focus on the important
chance, but can survive on very little food. by evolution and have become permanent task of hunting.
The most famous anglerfish are deep- parasites on the female’s body. An
sea dwellers. They have rounded heads, unattached male latches onto a female with
big mouths and a lot of sharp teeth. They its teeth. Females are far bigger than males
dangle a bioluminescent light that glows
softly through the darkness. The fish
wiggles it around to make it look like a

© Alamy

COSMOPOLITAN
WHIPNOSE
Gigantactis vanhoeffeni
Lifespan Unknown
Adult weight Unknown
Conservation status
WHIPNOSE
DATA DEFICIENT A model of a whipnose, an angler with an
extremely elongated lure that can grow
longer than the animal itself
>

LITTLE FINS
The fins of an anglerfish are fairly
weak because the predator prefers
to sit and wait on the sea floor to
be approached by a potential meal.
© Getty

80 80