A mouth-watering question: Why do some animals spit? | ECOVIEWS
Q. My family and I went to this cool drive-through park where you can buy treats to feed wild animals. They come right up to your car! So, I rolled my window down as a llama was coming toward the car. And guess what? It suddenly moved its mouth and spit right in my face. From only 6 feet away! It was utterly gross and stinky. Why would an animal spit at you?
A. Animals have a suite of survival strategies, and a few include spitting in their repertoire. Basic reasons include defense against predators, social communication and capturing prey. Spitting by llamas is often a preemptive strike to warn another animal to keep its distance.
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Although this is only speculation, a llama at a wildlife park may spit at a person in a car because of a previous negative encounter. Not enough carrots in the treat basket? Someone raised the window when the llama was ready to take a bite? Or maybe it was just having a bad day and you were an easy target.
Llamas and alpacas also spit in various social situations among themselves. An unreceptive female may spit at an unwelcome male during the breeding season. One llama may spit at another to discourage it from approaching a food source. Camels are also spitters, and according to recipients of such salivations, the smell is horrendous, as would be expected of output from a camel’s stomach.
At least two animals, a spider and a fish, use spitting as a means of capturing prey.
Had I not once seen an archerfish in action, I might be skeptical about their ability to use a miniature water cannon to knock insects out of bushes and eat them when they hit the surface of the lake. This little Asian fish pokes its snout above the water’s surface and directs a powerful stream from its mouth toward a resting insect. Zap! The insect is knocked from its perch and becomes a meal.
The fish’s accuracy is phenomenal, and behaviorists have much to learn about this unusual capture technique. Does an archerfish improve its accuracy with practice over time? Does it possess a form of cognitive learning that allows it to improve its technique by watching other archerfish?
The family of spitting spiders has one of the most impressive combinations of assault weapons to subdue prey yet devised — they spit spiderweb and venom in a single package. Take comfort in knowing the spiders only get to be about a quarter of an inch long.
One widespread species of spitting spider originated in Europe but can now be found on almost every continent except (as always) Antarctica. The reason for their ubiquity lies in their ability to adapt to their favorite habitat — the inside of houses. They can be safely transported from one house to another in clothes or furniture, unbeknownst to the resident human.
The common spitting spider creeps up on its prey, usually an insect, and spits a poisonous cocktail coupled with a zigzag spray of webbing over the victim. Then their dying, immobilized target receives a quick and lethal bite that delivers a dose of venom.
Snakes also have their contestants in this wildlife Olympics competition — the spitting cobras. As with the other spitters, a characteristic feature is accuracy. A spitting cobra that perceives another wild animal or a person as a threat is a danger because the spit is venom, and the target is the victim’s eyes.
I know someone in South Africa who was caught off-guard by a spitting cobra and was temporarily blinded. He eventually recovered his eyesight, but said it was an excruciating experience. Herpetologists who wear glasses have less painful outcomes.
Bizarre methods employed by animals to fend off unwanted intruders and conquer their prey seem never-ending. Considering what we have with us on earth today even makes the improbable spitting dinosaur in "Jurassic Park" as believable as the rest of the movie.
Whit Gibbons is professor of zoology and senior biologist at the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. If you have an environmental question or comment, email [email protected].
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Spit take: Why some animals will hock a loogie at you | ECOVIEWS
