{"id":28036,"date":"2023-05-16T10:57:49","date_gmt":"2023-05-16T08:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/?p=76917"},"modified":"2023-05-16T11:35:42","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T09:35:42","slug":"sea-cucumber-defends-itself-with-sticky-threads-released-from-its-bottom","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/sea-cucumber-defends-itself-with-sticky-threads-released-from-its-bottom\/","title":{"rendered":"Sea cucumber defends itself with sticky threads released from its bottom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Black sea cucumbers channel their inner spider to entangle predators <\/p>

By Stuart Blackman\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 16 May 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Sea cucumbers aren\u2019t built for fleeing from predators. But they do have a trick up their sleeves \u2013 or more accurately, up their bottoms \u2013 for dealing with danger. And new research sheds light on why it is so effective.<\/p>\n

Their secret weapon is called the Cuvierian organ. It\u2019s a branch of the animal\u2019s gills, which sit just inside the anus, that extends into the body\u2019s interior.<\/p>\n

When danger threatens, the gut wall ruptures and the organ is ejected through their rear ends.<\/p>\n

On contact with seawater, it transforms into sticky, spaghetti-like threads that immobilise assailants.<\/p>\n

Please note external videos may contain ads:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\nThe new <a href=\"\/\/www.pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2213512120"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""noopener" noopener noreferrer\">PNAS<\/em><\/a> study shows that the threads are built of proteins similar to those found in spider silk.<\/p>\nThese are so strong and sticky that no predators seem to have come up with a way of dealing with them, says Ting Chen of <a href=\"\/\/english.scsio.cas.cn\/"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""noopener" noopener noreferrer\">China\u2019s South Sea Institute of Oceanology<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cInterestingly, as a counter-adaptation, most predators have given up hunting sea cucumbers.\u201d<\/p>\nMain image: Black sea cucumber (Holothuria leucospilota) \u00a9\u00a0Philippe Bourjon \u2013 some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) <a href=\"\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""noopener" noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/<\/a><\/em><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Black sea cucumbers channel their inner spider to entangle predators <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":28037,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"< 1"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/05\/sea-cucumber-defends-itself-with-sticky-threads-released-from-its-bottom.jpg",1200,900,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/05\/sea-cucumber-defends-itself-with-sticky-threads-released-from-its-bottom-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/05\/sea-cucumber-defends-itself-with-sticky-threads-released-from-its-bottom-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/05\/sea-cucumber-defends-itself-with-sticky-threads-released-from-its-bottom-768x576.jpg",768,576,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/05\/sea-cucumber-defends-itself-with-sticky-threads-released-from-its-bottom-1024x768.jpg",800,600,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/05\/sea-cucumber-defends-itself-with-sticky-threads-released-from-its-bottom.jpg",1200,900,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/05\/sea-cucumber-defends-itself-with-sticky-threads-released-from-its-bottom.jpg",1200,900,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Black sea cucumbers channel their inner spider to entangle predators","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/28036"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}