Fierce Fighters Just aſt er midnight, a howl rises from a forest in Australia. A fearsome growl answers it. T en there’s a scream. Sharp teeth flash. Fur flies. T is forest sounds haunted. It’s not. It’s just two Tasmanian devils. T ey’re fighting over a dead animal. T ese scavengers eat dead animals. It’s best


These critters use scary looks and sounds to survive. hickory horned devil


Devils


to stay out of their way, though. T ey may weigh only about 8 kg. Yet they have one of the most powerful bites of any mammal. T eir teeth crush bones. T ey rip apart fur and guts. T ese devils fight a lot. T ey fight over


food. T ey brawl over space. T ey battle for mates. T ey attack predators. When they fight, their ears turn bright red. T ey spray a stinky smell. T ey gnash their teeth and scream. T ey look and act devilish to survive.


Thorny Devil A second kind of devil lives in a desert in Australia. Spikes stick out from its body. T ey look like sharp thorns. Meet the thorny devil lizard. Its prickly


outside makes it look dangerous. In fact, its looks are an interesting adaptation. At dawn, the lizard rubs against a bush


covered in dew. Dew drops slide down its spikes and into tiny grooves in its skin. T e grooves lead to the lizard’s mouth. T e lizard drinks the dew. Now it can survive another devilishly hot day in the desert. Despite its looks, only ants should fear the


thorny devil. It licks them up with its tongue and crunches them with its teeth. It can eat as many as 3,000 ants in a meal.


8 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXTREME EXPLORER


A Devil With Horns Our last devil crawls along a branch high in a tree. Suddenly, it rears up. Nearly a dozen spiky red and black horns stick out of its head. It shakes its head and buzzes. Meet the hickory horned devil. T is devil is a caterpillar. It can grow up to


15 cm long. T is creepy critter looks and acts devilish for one reason. It needs to scare off predators. T at way, it can get back to what it does best—munching tree leaves. From devils to zombie masters to ghosts,


these critters may seem like living nightmares. Some seem to vanish. Others howl horribly or force victims to grow freaky body parts. T eir adaptations may make them look and act scary. Yet each adaptation has a purpose. T ese animals are all spooky survivors.


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