Animals - natural self defense mechanism

Regarding bees:

Another interesting thing about bees (and wasps and ants) is that their method of reproduction is quite weird at the genetic/chromosome level.

I can't remember the details of how it works, but the result is that worker bees are more closely related to their sisters than they would be to any offspring they had.

This in turn means that the best way for a bee to pass on "its" genes is to work for the good of the colony (sacrificing itself if necessary), rather producing and protecting its own young.



I saw a documentary once about Japanese bees and hornets.

Japanese giant hornets prey on bees and other insects. Their exoskeleton is too tough for bee stings to penetrate (and/or they are resistant to their venom). Non-native bees are defenseless against them, and a small squad of hornets can slaughter an entire hive within hours.

Native Japanese bees have evolved a defense however. Instead of attacking the hornets as soon as they approach their hive, they hang back, and allow the hornet to enter (the hornets send out lone scouts to find bee-hives to raid). Then, all of a sudden, the bees swarm all over the hornet, not stinging it, but smothering it, and buzzing frenetically to produce as much body heat as possible. The bees have a higher heat tolerance than the hornets, and the hornet is literally cooked alive.



Regarding other impressive defenses:
The cassowary can kill a man with a kick to the throat, and I've seen video footage of one making a flying kick-type attack at a man protected by a police riot shield, and knocking him back several feet.

Yeah, for defense, I don't think plants can be beat. One example that comes to mind is the acacia tree. Acacias developed long thorns- and antelope and girrafes developed long tounges to get around this. They developed poisons, and animals learned to eat only a few leaves from a tree, and eat upwind.
It's a perfect mini-example of the relationship between criminals and good people. Like what that cop said at the end of Batman.

I thought "octopus" ink was actually squid ink?

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Both types of animals release ink.

IMO, snakes use venom primarily to disable prey. Defense might be secondary.

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It isn't a matter of whether a defensive use is a primary or secondary use. The primary use of teeth in carnivores is the processing of food. Catching and killing food with the teeth is important, but a very short term application. Use in defense is similarly short and DEFINITELY NOT a primary use. Same for claws. Few adaptations are only serve one role.

I have heard that vultures will vomit on you if you mess with them or shoot at them. I have never attempted to test that.

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This is good as messing with or shooting at vultures would be an illegal act as they are protected species under multiple acts (raptor, migratory bird, etc.)

I have killed a few armadillos, but I have never seen one roll into a ball. They have always tried to run or bolt down a hole.

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You have probably never seen one spring up high in the air (2-4feet) from a standing position. It is very cool and it works well at scaring some potential predators such as canids. They do roll into balls as a form of defense under the right circumstances, usually when their other forms of defense have been exhausted.

Also, considering that armadillos are prey for every major predator species in the US, their defenses are not very good. They are slow, blind, and deaf. Even an unskilled guy like me can sneak up on one and outrun it.

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They are not prey for every major predator species. I am not sure how you could justify the claim anymore than saying turtles were, and they aren't either. Armadillos actually have few natural predatory enemies aside from parasites. As for being slow, blind, and deaf, not exactly true either. They are one of the faster (size to weight ratio) fully armored mammals you will find anywhere in the world.

As for being blind and deaf, nope. They do have poorer eyesight and hearing than humans, but they still hear pretty darned good, far from being deaf. These are fossorial adaptations that coincide with their lifeways.

I would say that excessive breeding is another weapon that is not mentioned. That works for armadillos, mice, rabbits, and other animals.

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Once again, not true for armadillos. "Excessive breeding" is NOT a trait of armadillos. What you are talking about is called "r-selection" in biology for taxa with multiple numbers of litters per year (4-10 for some rodents, about 4 for rabbits) with multiple births (often inexcess of 4). Armadillos breed but once a year and have a fairly long gestation period of 150 days (compared to 30-60 for some rodents). They do have litters of multiple individuals, but do many carnivores that you don't associate with "excessive" breeding.

The reason you think they have such excessive breeding, no doubt, is because their body armor is actually very good protection again predators and because adults will often have multiple burrows they use as dens. One individual can look like several as a result of burrow evidence.

Ocotpus (and squid) ink is a distraction rather than an active defence mechanism. The idea is that a sudden cloud of ink distracts and disorientates the attacker, but won't actually harm anyone or anything.

The human analogy would be releasing a smoke bomb if a mugger attacked you and running away while the mugger couldn't see you.

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