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.

Coast Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma coronatum) (4849639213)
Steve Berardi from Long Beach, CA, United States ยท CC BY-SA 2.0 ยท licence ยท source

Where this comes from

San Diego Zoo

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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.
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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.
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