Many animals in nature have characteristics or abilities that give it the greatest chance of surviving. Sometimes they're fairly straightforward or even kind of boring, but others can have interesting and unique mechanisms for survival. This list contains 5 such animals and their strange abilities.
Teddy Bear Crab
It is pretty obvious why the teddy bear crab got the name that it did but what is less obvious is its weird defense mechanism it developed. A few subset of the species will wield sea anemones like an underwater ninja. As far as we know this done only to ward off predators but I wouldn't be surprised if they learn to use them to hunt for food someday.
Axolotl
Axolotls are salamanders that live in Mexico. Their weird, but incredibly useful ability, is the ability to regenerate everything but their vital organs. Lost limbs, nerve endings, even parts of the brain not directly responsible for keeping the animal alive. As you might imagine scientist are very interested in this ability and hope to one day unlock its secrets to allow humans to potentially harness this power.
Pink Dragon Millipede
There are several species of dragon millipede but the specific species shown here (Desmoxytes Purporosea) has quite the lethal defense mechanism. It is capable of storing and releasing hydrogen cyanide in the event of a predator attack. As you may know, cyanide is incredibly lethal and even small doses can kill (300 ppm will kill a human in between 10 and 60 minutes). An easier way to look at it is that after conversions, 300 ppm is approximately equal to one hundredth of an ounce per quart of solution. You definitely don't want to mess with this creepy crawly.
Flying Snake
You might be thinking to yourself right now "wait a minute, snakes don't have wings so how can they fly?" Well the truth is, these snakes can't actually fly but rather they glide from the tops of trees. That might actually be worse than just simple flying. They do this by using their ribs to become flat, and then they whip their bodies in a fast, rhythmic S-shape to stay airborne. Fortunately for you, these guys only live in southeast Asia. At least until they find a way to fly for real.
Tardigrade (Water Bears)
Water bears are a micro-animal that are practically invulnerable. Move over Bear Grylls because this bear is the ultimate survivalist. If you can think of a way to be killed in nature, the water bear probably defies it. It has been recorded surviving temperatures as low as -328° F and as high as 304° F for several minutes, it can withstand 1200 times normal atmospheric pressure and the vacuum of space. Most interesting to scientist however, is its ability to resist radiation. They create a certain protein that offers protection for DNA and it's hypothesized that this protein can used to help humans resist radiation damage in the future.
