{"id":223510,"date":"2025-10-19T01:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T01:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/223510\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T01:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T01:29:08","slug":"it-bites-its-own-tail-to-become-a-brutal-spiked-wheel-is-this-natures-bizarrest-defence-mechanism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/223510\/","title":{"rendered":"It bites its own tail to become a brutal spiked wheel: Is this nature\u2019s bizarrest defence mechanism?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a brave beast that bites this tail. The spiky appendage belongs to an armadillo girdled lizard, as does the mouth that\u2019s biting it. <\/p>\n

The reptile is the sole member of the genus Ouroborus, named after the mythical serpent that ate its own tail \u2013 a symbol of continuity, eternity, rebirth and cycles of life. <\/p>\n

\"\"Kevin Murray, CC BY 4.0 https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
\nWhy do they bite their tails?<\/p>\n

For this creature, though, the behaviour is more about self-preservation, exposing attackers to its impenetrable spines while protecting its vulnerable underparts. <\/p>\n

The species is unusually sociable, living in groups of up to 30 in rocky crevices in South African deserts, and bears very large, live young \u2013 usually just one \u2013 that are fed by the parents.<\/p>\n

Top image credit: cndyntdhn, CC BY-SA 4.0 https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0<\/a>, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a brave beast that bites this tail. The spiky appendage belongs to an armadillo girdled lizard, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-223510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}