White tail rabbit confuse predators chase Bashny.Net

Some animals have luxurious white tails, which become apparent at a time when they are persecuted predators. For a long time it was not clear why this is so: white tail - very bright lure, and in a dangerous situation, he obviously has to attract attention, it would seem, should not prevent the animal to get away from the chase.



Biologist Dirk Semmann from Gottingen University in Germany believes that the white tail is not used for sexual selection, as happens in other animals (such as the peacock's tail is needed to attract females), but it is not a sign of a predator. Rather, it helps to confuse the predator during the chase.

White Tails are very visible, and predators focus on these bright spots, which prevents them to pay attention just on a larger compared with its tail victim. When, during the chase the rabbit or deer performs a maneuver such as a sharp turn, spot suddenly disappears, as a result of the predator has to redirect attention to the animal. It is a hunter some time, the victim also receives a few precious seconds to save his life.

Semmann tested his theory in practice: he asked 24 people to play a video game where they pursued a virtual rabbit - in one game mode rabbit had a white tail, the other not. As expected, the presence of the white tail of people make the mistake a few times more.

via factroom.ru