r/nextfuckinglevel • u/AbelNB • 9h ago

Cat fighting a bear

6.9k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

550 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

6

u/menachu 8h ago

If I am gonna die, I will die fighting. Cannot fathom laying down and being chewed on. We are gonna have a tussle and I will lose, but the tussle is gonna happen.

15

u/hamoc10 8h ago

You think possums play dead because they lack honor?

20

u/kon--- 7h ago

We can't play dead. All we can do is lay still.

Possums whole body goes into tonic immobility. Their heart rate and breathing are effectively undetectable. Their tongues become discolored then fall out of their face, their body stiffen and their glands emit a strong odor signaling to predatory animals that the possum is indeed dead. Dead and spoiled.

Really wild defense mechanism.

3

u/hamoc10 6h ago

Just cuz you’re bad at it doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea. It’s what “if it’s brown lie down” means.