The mouse impregnates poison on the back to kill the enemy

Unlike most other mammals, the African porcupine rat (also known as the crested rat) Lophiomys imhausi produces its own "poison" to protect itself. When attacked, toxins on the feathers help them kill the enemy.

Scientists discovered that the poison on the rat's porcupine was similar to the poison that African hunters impregnated with arrows when hunting and they thought that rats eating poisoned arrow shells then produced toxins. self.

The porcupine mouse, scientific name Lophiomys imhausi, is capable of killing a lion thanks to its toxin covered with fur.

Fritz Vollrath and his colleagues at Oxford University gave mice porcupines to eat poisoned bark for a week in their experiments and they found that after eating, they licked saliva all over the short hairs that ran along their sides.

When viewed under a microscope, the surface of the short hairs has holes, in the middle are the hairs. This allows porcupine mice to absorb and store toxins. When attacked, the mouse seeks to let the enemy bite into the ribs. If the trap falls, the enemy will be cramped, foamed, then fall to the ground and die.

It is the fur and the thick crust of the skull and the immune system that helped the porcupine mice not to be killed by the poison they produced.