It is no coincidence that the kængururotten has been nicknamed ‘ninjarotte’, for their reflexes are lightning-fast as – yes, a ninja.
It shows footage from the Sonora desert outside Yuma, Arizona, where the small rodents are seen to take their natural enemies by the nose again and again, writes USA Today.
It was a bunch of students from the University of California, Riverside, who marveled at how kængururotter, also known as springtaskemus, could survive the encounter with the desert rattlesnakes.
The students had observed several live mice with the brands after the snakebite, so they decided to film the meeting between the lightning-fast rodents and klapperslangerne with a slow motion camera.
the Footage showed an impressive forsvarsteknik at kængururotterne, with their lightning-fast reflexes jumps to avoid the attack, and uses its hind legs to ‘kick’ the snake away in the process.See the incredible footage in the video above the article.
With its hind legs ‘kicking’ kængururotten the attacking snake away. Screengrab from the video.
What is also amazing is that we are not just recording a single kængururotte, which kicked off a hose away. It happened many times, and seems to be a really important reason for them to survive these meetings, which have not been documented before, ” says Grace Freymiller from San Diego State University, which is one of the main authors behind the report on the observations.