It seems counterintuitive, you’re just making yourself more easily accessible to the predator and you’re giving them an easy meal. Can someone explain the logic behind playing dead and how effective the strategy is?
In: Biology
First, not all threats want to eat you–some will just attack because *they* consider *you* a threat. But if they think you’re dead, they no longer see you as a threat and will leave you alone.
Second, not all predators are carrion eaters. If they don’t hunt down and kill their own prey, they might not consider the dead prey to be suitable food and will ignore it.
And third, some animals do not have suitable defenses, against certain predators. If you play dead, maybe it won’t rush over and eat you and will become distracted (perhaps by a rival predator), giving you time to escape. Think of a gazelle playing dead to a lion–if a pack of hyenas shows up to challenge the lion, maybe the gazelle can run away, in the chaos.
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