Animals choose different types of defensive mechanism to save their own lives. Some animals use their foul smelling odor as a powerful weapon against their potential predators. The followings are 10 smelliest animals in the world.
10 King Ratsnake
King ratsnake is a large and beautiful constrictor that found in open forests and meadows of China, Northern Vietnam and China. This snake is also called as ‘stinking goddess’ because of its habit of habit of producing strong pungent smell. It’s a defensive mechanism from king ratsnakes. They release the offensive odor from post-anal glands when threatened.
Surprisingly the stinky king ratsnakes found as an exotic pet in some parts of the world. This large species can reach up to a maximum length of 2.4 meters. They ratsnakes mainly feed on rodents.
The earwig is a small, dark insect that found throughout the Americas, Africa, Asia and Australia. The earwigs are nocturnal and hide under the rocks or in the small opening during the day. The earwig is a stinky insect. It squirt stinky, yellow colored liquid from its scent glands when threatened. It help them to defend against predators like frogs, beetles and toads.
8 Wood hoopoe
Wood hoopoe is a medium-sized, long-billed bird native to sub-Saharan Africa. Their beautiful plumage comes in green, blue or purple. Despite their attractive plumage the wood hoopoes known for spraying smelly fluid. It smells as worst as rotten eggs. The mail goal behind this behavior is to protect their nest from predators.
The wood hoopoes produce the smelly fluid from specialized glands in their body. It is a great defensive weapon for such a medium-sized bird.
7 Tasmanian Devil
Tasmanian devil is a strange mammal that only found in Tasmania State of Australia. The small dog sized mammal look fierce, but no dangerous. Tasmanian devils are famed for their black fur, keen sense of smell and extremely loud screams. Tasmanian devils release a pungent odor when threatened. It helps them to defend against potential predators.
Wolverine is a small bear like looking animal and largest member of the weasel family. They live in boreal forests and Alpine tundra of Northern Canada, Alaska and Siberia. The Wolverines are also called as ‘skunk bear’ because of habit of releasing pungent odor. They produce the very unpleasant smell from anal gland. The wolverines release the unpleasant odor to mark their territory.
5 Stink Bug
The stink bugs are named after their behavior of releasing very, unpleasant smell when handles or threatened. This defensive mechanism helps the stink bugs to not being food for potential predators like lizards. It is the gland in the abdomen, which help the stink bugs to produce the unpleasant smell.
The stink bugs are agricultural pests which can cause massive damage to fruits and vegetables. The stink bugs are very common in U.S, China and Japan. They can be found inside your house in summer season.
Skunk is a small mammal that is notable for spraying horrible smelling oily liquids when threatened. The skunks can eject the foul smelling oily liquid to a distance up to 3 meters. The unpleasant, oily liquid is produced by two nut sized glands under their tail. By spraying the stinky liquid skunks can defend even the larger predators like bears.
The skunks won’t use their ‘spraying foul smelling liquid’ mechanism at first when threatened. They will growl, fluff the fur and shake their tails on facing a predator. If the danger persists the skunks will spray the stinky, oily liquid on the predators. The skunk liquid is not at all harmful. But it is completely uncomfortable and linger for many days.
3 Bombardier Beetle
The bombardier beetles are named after their unusual defensive strategy. When threatened, they spray a foul smelling, hot, noxious chemical. They release the chemical from the tip of their abdomen. The bombardier beetle can spray the chemical in a number of times on the predators with great accuracy and speed.
The special chambers inside the abdomen of bombardier beetles contain two chemicals called hydroquinone and hydrogen peroxide. When threatened, the bombardier beetles mixes the potent chemicals with enzymes and spray it on the intruder. The addition of enzymes heats up the chemical mix to near 100 degree Celsius.
By spraying the noxious chemical bombardier beetles can easily kill small insects. In humans the chemicals produce a burning sensation on the skin. The chemical mix produced by bombardier beetles is also very unpleasant.
2 Striped Polecat
The striped polecat is an aggressive, skunk like looking animal that found throughout the African continent. Like skunks, the striped polecats are also notable for very strong, unpleasant fluid. They produce the stinky fluid from the anal glands. The horrible smelling fluid released by striped polecats is intense enough to feel from many meters away.
Once threatened the striped polecat will growl at the approaching predators as a first warning. If the predator won’t leave then the striped cats will spray the horrible smelling fluids from their anal glands.
1 Lesser Anteater
The lesser anteater is a very stinky animal. In fact, it is 5-7 times stinker than sunk. Like other stinky animals the lesser anteater releases the unpleasant odor to defend against the predators. The lesser anteaters produce the unpleasant odor from the glands under their tail.
The lesser anteaters are nocturnal, spend daytime in resting in hollow tree trunks. Their eye vision is quite poor, but have a strong sense of smell and hearing. In addition to behavior of releasing unpleasant odor the lesser anteaters also have powerful arms to defend against the predators.