Now, here’s a rather intriguing new study. There’s this thing or things known as “eyespots” on animals’ rear end, especially on preys. It is part of the evolution to deter predators from launching an attack from behind.
Eyespots make the butt looks like it is front and for some reasons, some predators choose not attack the animal from the front (possibly, due to the risk of alerting them and them taking flight).
Also, butt is almost always larger than the head and thus it will make the animal appears larger than it really is, thereby deterring an attack when its back is to the predator.
Here’s the thing, eyespots are not appearing on contemporary mammals, according to a new study published on Communications Biology. So, researchers painted fake eyes on cattle’s butts and they found that painted eyespots actually reduces ambush by carnivores such as lions and leopards.
This got me thinking: will it work on humans too? I mean, we could wear pants or skirts with huge eyes on the back so wild cats won’t pounce on us when take a stroll in the woods? Just throwing it out there. But seriously, its a joke. Don’t venture into the woods with fake eyes on your butt. I will not be responsible for cats mauling you.
If you are interested in the study, you can read all about it HERE.
Images: Communications Biology. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
Source: boing boing.
