Where does this come from, and can I check it?

Gulping water expands pufferfish into spiky unswallowable balls. The figure is taken from Monterey Bay Aquarium, 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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Pufferfish inflate their bodies with water to deter predators

Gulping water expands pufferfish into spiky unswallowable balls.

When threatened, pufferfish rapidly pump water into an elastic stomach that expands several times its normal volume. Combined with sharp dermal spines that point outward, this dramatic physical transformation renders the pufferfish virtually impossible for larger fish to swallow.

Sphoeroides nephelus (southern pufferfish) (Tampa Bay, Florida, USA) 3 — James St. John · CC BY 2.0 · licence · source

Where this comes from

Monterey Bay Aquarium

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Tags: pufferfish, ocean, defense

Pufferfish inflate their bodies with water to deter predators: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: Gulping water expands pufferfish into spiky unswallowable balls. The figure is taken from Monterey Bay Aquarium, 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.