This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Around this time of year, elaborate decorations featuring ghosts, vampires, zombies, witches and werewolves adorn front doors, gardens and store windows across the country. But you may be surprised to hear that in the animal world, there are many real-life creatures with tendencies similar to those of the fictional characters in our Halloween nightmares.
The southern grasshopper mouse (Onychomys torridus) howls at the moon to defend its territory and attract mates, a little like werewolves in films. These nocturnal rodents stand up on their hind legs, point their noses upward and produce high-pitched sounds. Grasshopper mice are voracious carnivores, preying upon scorpions, beetles, grasshoppers and even other mice.
They are also immune to the stings of their favorite food—the bark scorpion (Centruroides sculpturatus). Grasshopper mice can block the chemical pathway that transmits the signal from the venom, essentially numbing themselves to the pain. They then bite off the scorpion's tail, leaving their prey unable to defend themselves.
These little rodents are so formidable that they will unhesitatingly attack anything that is appropriately sized and considered to be food, even if it might be dangerous. Small mammals, like grasshopper mice, play crucial ecological roles in their ecosystems. For example, by digging their burrows, they can act as ecosystem engineers (species that modify the environment), creating microhabitats for other species.
The emerald jewel wasp (Ampulex compressa) is a beautiful and ecologically important species. Not only does it act as a casual pollinator for a range of plant species, but it is also an essential biocontrol—an organism that controls the population of a pest species. Over millions of years, these wasps have evolved the morbid ability to sting cockroaches and turn them into compliant zombies upon which they lay their eggs.
When these eggs hatch, the larvae devour the zombified cockroach from the inside out. Small birds called oxpeckers (Buphagus species) and large ungulates (hoofed mammals) were considered to have a mutually beneficial relationship. When these birds removed pesky ticks and other parasites from their mammalian companions, they were rewarded with a quick, tasty meal.
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