When Predators Become Prey - 4 Animals That Twist the Food Chain

#1 Frog Devours Snake

Near Queensland, Australia Ian Hamiliton of Australia's Daily Mercury captured these photos of what several articles identify as a Cane Toad, but what may actually be a type of Tree Frog (Litoria), devouring a Brown Tree Snake or a Keelback snake, in a bizarre twist of the normal food chain. The non-venomous Brown Tree Snake usually feeds on birds and even amphibians, so it was a surprise and a treat for many interested parties. A veterinary surgeon interviewed in one newspaper commented, "We have seen snakes eating frogs here but not the other way around. We have actually saved frogs a couple of times because they make quite a noise when the snakes are getting them. But don't ask me how on earth that frog swallowed that snake."

It took a total of 15 minutes for the cane toad to devour the snake entirely.

In the Daily Mercury, Australian Wildlife Rescue Service volunteer Fay Paterson, on the contrary, claimed that the snake was a common Keelback snake, a non-venomous species. It is hard to be sure which it is with both the Keelback and the Brown Tree Snake being so similar in appearance, and the photos being of such low quality resolution. Ironically, the Keelback is one of the few snakes that can eat Cane Toads, up to a certain size, without being harmed. The veterinary surgeon who identified it as a Brown Tree Snake commented, "That type of snake usually eats birds. But in the food chain anything can happen as long as you are bigger than the bloke you are eating," he said. "It is just a measure of what can happen out there in the wild."

This photo is of an entirely separate incident than pictured in the first photo and the image was captured in China, but both the frog and snake appear to be of a similar species. 

Actual Cane Toad eating snake.

#2 Beetle Devours Frog

New research has found that the Epomis beetle, when presented with the opportunity, will attack and kill amphibians several times the beetle's size. Strangely, amphibians and frogs are animals that usually prey upon the insect. Every time the researchers put the Epomis Beetle in an enclosure with an amphibian, the beetle attacked and consumed the amphibian. The beetle's normal diet consists of other invertebrates, such as insects, worms, and dead vertebrates so the findings were strange and unusual. 

"Amphibians are typical insect predators, and their diet may include adult beetles, ground beetles in particular," study researcher Gil Wizen, at Tel Aviv University in Israel, said in a statement. "The recently filmed successful attacks of the beetles on toads and frogs brought new insights on the amphibian-insect interactions, and documented the uncommon phenomenon of invertebrates preying on vertebrate animals."

Like a sick horror movie these beetles will often get to know their prey first, harmoniously sharing shelter and living space during the day before they paralyze and devour their prey at night. With surgical precision, the beetles wrestle and mount the frogs before making an incision on its back, which instantly paralyzes the amphibian. It then slowly devours the frog from the bottom up, starting with the legs first. The meal will usually last over several hours with the frog completely aware of its fate, as it is slowly consumed alive.  

The Epomis larvae feed exclusively on frogs and other would-be predators, and are notable for being obligate role reversal predators. Epomis larvae are known to lure the amphibians by making distress-like movements. They then evade the attack and disable the predator with a bite to the throat, underside, or with an incision to the back to cause paralysis. Scientists speculate that Epomis evolved this behavior as an aggressive evasion tactic in response to predation by amphibians. The success of this tactic probably led to Epomis beetle becoming an obligate predator itself.

The strong jaws of the larvae may be one evolutionary advantage they use to defeat a predator so large.

“The amphibians don’t stand a chance. They can’t ignore the moving larvae because, if they do, something is wrong with their instincts,” said entomologist Gil Wizen of the University of Toronto, leader of a study about the deadly bugs published Sept. 21 in PLoS ONE. “Normally amphibians eat small larvae, so the larvae seem to be taking their revenge here,” he said. Wizen and Gasith described the strategy of Epopmis beetle larvae as an “extremely rare anti-predator behavior.” “How a single insect genus evolved a unique role reversal … is currently an enigma,” they wrote in the study.

In fact, this kind of role-reversal is extremely rare in the wild; in only about 10 percent of predator prey relationships do smaller animals consume larger organisms. Most of these are outright attacks instead of the prey animal, in a twist of fate, luring the predator to be consumed. 

#3 Praying Mantis Eats Hummingbird

Although Humming Birds are not normally a predator of the Praying Mantis, they do feed on some small insects as well as nectar. There have been numerous observations of the birds hawking gnats and other small insects from the air. There are many species of Praying Mantis that are quite small, at least for a time, and of course there are many birds that do normally feed on the Praying Mantis. So it is highly unusual that this invertebrate should feed on a vertebrate species that is much larger, like the Humming Bird, which in all appearances is quite similar to several animals that do prey on the Praying Mantis. 

#4 Pigs Kill Leopards and Humans

Winner of the 2014 National Geographic photo contest, by chanaka perera, the photos shows 3 male wild boar as they make a brutal attack on a large male leopard, ultimately killing the leopard.

Often prey animals, Wild Boar or Wild Pigs will sometimes switch it up and attack then kill their predators like the Leopard, even when unprovoked. 

A group of large wild boar suddenly make an unprovoked attack on a large male leopard, ultimately killing the leopard.

Wild Boar and even domesticated pigs have been known to attack, kill, and then eat humans. One example is an Oregon farmer who went to bring his hogs breakfast instead, apparently, became the meal himself. When the farmer never returned from feeding his hogs one morning in 2012, it prompted a family member to check on him. What they found was horrifying.

"They first found his dentures and his hat, a package of cigarettes, his pocket knife. Then they started seeing pieces of his body," said Paul Frasier, Coos County district attorney. "Several of the hogs weighed 700 pounds or more." "First time I’ve had a situation like this,” he said. "Outside of television and reading Hannibal Lecter novels, I’ve never heard of anything like this."

It was speculated that only one of the Hogs was aggressive, and the attack may have occurred in result of the farmer accidentally stepping on a young piglet. 

Due to the clearing of natural boar habitats, the number of interactions, including aggressive ones, between humans and boars has increased. Some attacks are provoked, for example when a hunter wounds a boar which then counterattacks, some are not.



predators become prey, hunters become hunted, anti predator adaptation, obligate predators, animals, frogs eat snakes, praying mantis eats hummingbird, Epomis beetle, wild boar, pigs eat humans,  predators become prey, hunters become hunted, anti predator adaptation, obligate predators, animals, frogs eat snakes, praying mantis eats hummingbird, Epomis beetle, wild boar, pigs eat humans,  predators become prey, hunters become hunted, anti predator adaptation, obligate predators, animals, frogs eat snakes, praying mantis eats hummingbird, Epomis beetle, wild boar, pigs eat humans,  predators become prey, hunters become hunted, anti predator adaptation, obligate predators, animals, frogs eat snakes, praying mantis eats hummingbird, Epomis beetle, wild boar, pigs eat humans,  predators become prey, hunters become hunted, anti predator adaptation, obligate predators, animals, frogs eat snakes, praying mantis eats hummingbird, Epomis beetle, wild boar, pigs eat humans,  predators become prey, hunters become hunted, anti predator adaptation, obligate predators, animals, frogs eat snakes, praying mantis eats hummingbird, Epomis beetle, wild boar, pigs eat humans,  predators become prey, hunters become hunted, anti predator adaptation, obligate predators, animals, frogs eat snakes, praying mantis eats hummingbird, Epomis beetle, wild boar, pigs eat humans,  predators become prey, hunters become hunted, anti predator adaptation, obligate predators, animals, frogs eat snakes, praying mantis eats hummingbird, Epomis beetle, wild boar, pigs eat humans,  predators become prey, hunters become hunted, anti predator adaptation, obligate predators, animals, frogs eat snakes, praying mantis eats hummingbird, Epomis beetle, wild boar, pigs eat humans,  predators become prey, hunters become hunted, anti predator adaptation, obligate predators, animals, frogs eat snakes, praying mantis eats hummingbird, Epomis beetle, wild boar, pigs eat humans,  predators become prey, hunters become hunted, anti predator adaptation, obligate predators, animals, frogs eat snakes, praying mantis eats hummingbird, Epomis beetle, wild boar, pigs eat humans,   Share on Tumblr

20 Awesome Real Animal Hybrids - Collection of Amazing Photos

Peacock and Turkey Hybrid

A hybrid animal is two animals from different species, but from the same genus, that are cross-bred. The resulting animal will be called a hybrid. This does not occur very often in nature and instead they are usually bred in captivity, or in a lab, and most hybrid animals are sterile.

#1 Narwhal + Beluga = Narluga

A Narwhal-beluga is a cross between the two Monodontidae species. Narwhal-beluga

Narlugas are the offspring of beluga whales and narwhals. Though seen in the wild, there has not been one actually captured.

#2 Cows + Bison = Beefalo

Beefalo are a fertile hybrid offspring of domestic cattle, generally males that are bred in managed breeding programs.

Beefalo Cows

The meat is moderately low in fat and cholesterol, about a third the amount in regular beef, and much lower in saturated fat.

#3 Camels + Llamas = Camas

A cama is a hybrid between a male dromedary camel and a female llama, and has been produced via artificial insemination at the Camel Reproduction Centre in Dubai.

The aim was to create an animal capable of higher wool production than the llama, with the size and strength of a camel and a cooperative temperament.

An adult camel weighs six times as much as a llama, so artificial insemination is the only way to produce a living and thriving cama. Insemination of a female llama with sperm from a male dromedary camel has been the only successful combination. Other combinations, such as that of a female camel with male llama sperm, have not produced viable offspring.

#4 False Killer Whale + Dolphin = Wholphin

A wholphin or wolphin is an extremely rare hybrid born from a mating of a female bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) with a male false killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens).

The name implies a hybrid of whale and dolphin, although taxonomically, both are within the "oceanic dolphin" family, which is within the "toothed whale" suborder.

Kekaimalu, the world's only known living wholphin, swims next to her baby calf

Kawili Kai, born to  Kekaimalu (female wholphin) by a male dolphin, at 9 months of age in September 2005

#5 Grizzly Bears + Polar Bears = Grolar Bears

A grizzly–polar bear hybrid (also pizzly bear, prizzly bear, Polar-Grizz, or grolar bear, is a rare ursid hybrid that has occurred both in captivity and in the wild.

 In 2006, the occurrence of this hybrid in nature was confirmed by testing the DNA of a strange-looking bear that had been shot near Sachs Harbour, Northwest Territories on Banks Island in the Canadian Arctic.

Although these two species are genetically similar and often found in the same territories, they tend to avoid each other in the wild. They also fill different ecological niches.

#6 Equines + Zebras = Zebroids

A zebroid (also zedonk, zorse, zebra mule, zonkey, and zebrule) is the offspring of any cross between a zebra and any other equine: essentially, a zebra hybrid.

(Zebra-Donkey) In most cases, the sire is a zebra stallion. Offspring of a donkey sire and zebra dam, called a zebra hinny, or donkra, do exist but are rare. Like mules, however, they are generally genetically unable to breed, due to an odd number of chromosomes disrupting meiosis.

Zonkra (Zonkey) born to a zebra dam and male donkey which is very rare. Born at Crimean Zoo August 5, 2014.

A zorse is the offspring of a zebra stallion and a horse mare. This cross is also called a zebrula, zebrule, or zebra mule. The rarer reverse pairing is sometimes called a horbra, hebra, zebrinny or zebret. Like most other animal hybrids, the zorse is sterile.

A zony is the offspring of a zebra stallion and a pony mare. Medium-sized pony mares are preferred to produce riding zonies, but zebras have been crossed with smaller pony breeds such as the Shetland, resulting in so-called "Zetlands".

#7 Male Lions + Female Tigers = Ligers

The liger is a hybrid cross between a male lion (Panthera leo) and a tigress (Panthera tigris). Thus, it has parents with the same genus but of different species. It is distinct from the similar hybrid tigon. It is the largest of all known extant felines.

 Notably, ligers typically grow larger than either parent species, unlike tigons which tend to be about as large as a female tiger and is the cross between a male tiger and a lioness.

#8 Male Tigers + Female Lions = Tigons

A tigon or tiglon is a hybrid cross between a male tiger (Panthera tigris) and a lioness (Panthera leo). Thus, it has parents with the same genus but of different species.

The tigon's genome includes genetic components of both parents. Tigons can exhibit visible characteristics from both parents: they can have both spots from the mother (lions carry genes for spots—lion cubs are spotted and some adults retain faint markings) and stripes from the father. 

Any mane that a male tigon may have will appear shorter and less noticeable than a lion's mane and is closer in type to the ruff of a male tiger. It is a common misconception that tigons are smaller than lions or tigers.

#9 Domestic Cats + African Cats = Savannah Cats

A Savannah cat is a cross between a domestic cat and the serval, a medium-sized, large-eared wild African cat. The unusual cross became popular among breeders at the end of the 1990s, and in 2001 the International Cat Association accepted it as a new registered breed. In May 2012, TICA accepted it as a championship breed.

Size is very dependent on generation and sex, with F1 hybrid male cats usually being the largest. Because of the random factors in Savannah hybrid genetics, size can vary significantly, even in one litter.

#10 Coyotes + Wolves = Coywolf

Coywolf is an informal term for a canid hybrid descended from coyotes and one of three other North American Canis species (gray, eastern and red wolves).

The coyote is closely related to both eastern and red wolves, having diverged from them 150,000-300,000 years ago and evolved side by side with them in North America, thus facilitating hybridization between them.

In contrast, hybrids between coyotes and gray wolves, which are Eurasian in origin and diverged from coyotes 1-2 million years ago, are extremely rare, due to the latter species' habit of killing coyotes. Coydogs, who are hybrids between coyotes and domestic dogs, can also be considered as a close hybrid relative to hybrids of coyotes and gray wolves due in part to the dogs being a domestic descendant of the gray wolves.

#11 Male Leopards + Female Lions = Leopons

A leopon  is a hybrid resulting from the crossing of a male leopard with a lioness. The head of the animal is similar to that of a lion while the rest of the body carries similarities to leopards. These hybrids are produced in captivity and are unlikely to occur in the wild.

They have been bred in zoos in Japan, Germany, and Italy 

(the latter was a "reverse leopon" i.e. from a male lion and a leopardess)

#12 Male Tigers + Female Jaguars = Tiguars

The crossbreeding of a male Siberian tiger and a female jaguar from the southern Chiapas jungle produced a male tiguar named Mickey.

There has been no report of the birth of a healthy hybrid from a male jaguar and female tiger, which would be termed a "jagger"

#13 Yaks + Domestic Cows = Dzo

A dzo (Tibetan མཛོ་ mdzo) is a hybrid of yak and domestic cattle. The word dzo technically refers to a male hybrid, while a female is known as a dzomo or zhom.

In Mongolian it is called khainag. Dzomo are fertile while dzo are sterile. As they are a product of the hybrid genetic phenomenon of heterosis (hybrid vigor), they are larger and stronger than yak or cattle from the region. In Mongolia and Tibet, khainags are thought to be more productive than cattle or yaks in terms of both milk and meat production.

#14 Tamworth Pigs + Wild Boars = Iron Age Pigs

The Iron Age pig is a hybrid between a wild boar and a domestic pig meant to recreate the type of pig represented by prehistoric art works of the Iron Age in ancient Europe.

The project started in the early 1980s by crossing a male wild boar with a Tamworth sow to produce an animal that looks like the pig from long ago. Iron Age pigs are generally only raised in Europe for a specialty meat market, and in keeping with their heritage are generally more aggressive and harder to handle than pure domestic pigs.

#15 Game Birds + Poultry = Hybrid Pheasants

Two hybrids between chickens and the common pheasant, Rothschild Museum, Tring

Gamebird hybrids are the result of crossing species of game birds, including ducks, with each other and with domestic poultry. These hybrid species may occur both naturally or though the intervention of man.

Hybrid pheasant (left) and hybrid of Black Grouse x Hazel Grouse (right), Rothschild Museum, Tring

Hybrid Pheasant. The Golden Phesant has commonly been crossed with the similar Lady Amherst's Pheasant.

hybrid ring-necked pheasant and chicken

Peacock and Chicken Hybrid

Green Pheasant Hybrid

Pheasant and Chicken Hybrid

Peacock and Pheasant Hybrid

Peacock and Turkey Hybrid

Lady Amherst + Golden Pheasant Hybrid

#16 Sheep + Goat = Sheep-Goats

Although sheep and goats seem similar and can be mated together they are of a different genus so any offspring are generally stillborn due to chromosome mismatch (sheep have 54, goats have 60).

Male and female hybrids between sheep and mouflon (1910).

Sheep-Goat Hybrid of Botswana

#17 Male Horse + Female Donkey = Hinny

A hinny is a domestic equine hybrid that is the offspring of a horse stallion and a jenny donkey.

Common Mule

It is the reciprocal cross to the more common mule, which is the product of a jack donkey and a horse mare.

Hinny Mule

Hinnies are difficult to obtain because of the differences in the number of chromosomes of the horse and the donkey. A donkey has 62 chromosomes, whereas a horse has 64. Hinnies, being hybrids of those two species, have 63 chromosomes and are sterile.

#18 Human + Hamster = Humster

A humster is a hybrid cell line made from hamster oocyte fertilized with human sperm routinely created for two reasons:

*To avoid legal issues with working with pure human embryonic stem cell lines.

*To assess the viability of human sperm for in vitro fertilization.

Somatic cell hybrids between hamster or mouse and man have been used for mapping of various traits at least since the 1970s.

Also known as evaluation of human sperm fertility by interspecific (human spermatozoa-hamster oocytes) in vitro fertilization.

#19 Mouse + Cow = Vacanti Mouse

The Vacanti mouse was a laboratory mouse that had what looked like a human ear grown on its back. The "ear" was actually an ear-shaped cartilage structure grown by seeding cow cartilage cells into a biodegradable ear-shaped mold and then implanted under the skin of the mouse.

The earmouse, as it became known, was created by Charles Vacanti and colleagues in the Department of Anesthesiology (University of Massachusetts Medical School) and their results were published in 1997. The mouse itself is called a nude mouse, a commonly used strain of immunocompromised mouse, preventing a transplant rejection.

#20 Archaic Human + Modern Humans = Almas

There have been several instances of archaic human admixture with modern humans through interbreeding of modern humans with Neanderthals, Denisovans, and/or possibly other archaic humans over the course of human history. As is typical of similar legendary creatures throughout Central Asia, Russia, Pakistan and the Caucasus, the Almas is generally considered to be more akin to "wild people" in appearance and habits than to apes (in contrast to the Yeti of the Himalayas).

A wildwoman named Zana is said to have lived in the isolated mountain village of T'khina fifty miles from Sukhumi in Abkhazia in the Caucasus; some have speculated she may have been an Almas. Zana is said to have had sexual relations with a man of the village named Edgi Genaba, and gave birth to a number of children of apparently normal human appearance.

(Zana's Son) In the 2013 Channel 4 documentary, Bigfoot Files, Professor Bryan Sykes of the University of Oxford showed that Zana's DNA was 100% Sub-Saharan African in origin and she could have been a slave brought to Abkhazia by the Ottoman Empire. Prof. Sykes did however raise questions as to whether Zana could have been from a population of Africans who left the continent tens of thousands of years earlier as her son, Khwit's skull had some very unique and archaic characteristics.

Khwit's Skull (exhibits a combination of modern human and archaic human features)

Khwits's Skull compared to Modern Human Skull!

For perspective, this is a Neanderthal skull vs. a Modern Human skull..note the similarities by comparison in the picture of Khwit's skull and a Modern Human skull!

Almases appear in the legends of local people, who tell stories of sightings and human-Almas interactions dating back to the 15th century.

20 Awesome Animal Hybrids, animal-hybrids, animals, beefalo, camas, grolar bears, hybrids, ligers, narluga, parahumans, tigons, wholphin, almas, wild people, archaic human, vacanti mouse, humster, hinny, sheep-goats, turkey-peacock-hybrid, pheasant hybrid, chicken hybrid, iron age pig, dzo, tiguar, coywolf, savannah cat20 Awesome Animal Hybrids, animal-hybrids, animals, beefalo, camas, grolar bears, hybrids, ligers, narluga, parahumans, tigons, wholphin, almas, wild people, archaic human, vacanti mouse, humster, hinny, sheep-goats, turkey-peacock-hybrid, pheasant hybrid, chicken hybrid, iron age pig, dzo, tiguar, coywolf, savannah cat, zebroids, camas, beefalo, narluga, zebroids, cama20 Awesome Animal Hybrids, animal-hybrids, animals, beefalo, camas, grolar bears, hybrids, ligers, narluga, parahumans, tigons, wholphin, almas, wild people, archaic human, vacanti mouse, humster, hinny, sheep-goats, turkey-peacock-hybrid, pheasant hybrid, chicken hybrid, iron age pig, dzo, tiguar, coywolf, savannah cat, zebroids, camas, beefalo, narlugas, beefalo, nar20 Awesome Animal Hybrids, animal-hybrids, animals, beefalo, camas, grolar bears, hybrids, ligers, narluga, parahumans, tigons, wholphin, almas, wild people, archaic human, vacanti mouse, humster, hinny, sheep-goats, turkey-peacock-hybrid, pheasant hybrid, chicken hybrid, iron age pig, dzo, tiguar, coywolf, savannah cat, zebroids, camas, beefalo, narlugaluga

Share on Tumblr