Mondo Knows Facts
Horned lizards squirt blood from their eyes to scare predators
Specialized eye muscles restrict blood flow to increase ocular pressure.
When cornered by coyotes or dogs, Texas horned lizards contract sinus muscles surrounding their eyes, surging blood pressure until tiny ocular membranes rupture. They squirt a foul-tasting stream of blood up to 1.5 metres, repelling canine predators.
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Tags: horned-lizard, reptiles, defense
Horned lizards squirt blood from their eyes to scare predators: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Specialized eye muscles restrict blood flow to increase ocular pressure. The figure is taken from San Diego Zoo, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a animals fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Animals shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.
