How Do Hagfish Survive The First Bite Before Unleashing Their Weird Slime Attack? Scientists Now Have The Answer!

Remember that post I had made about a month ago, in which I told you how hagfish have one of the weirdest and most effective defense mechanisms? No? Ok, let me repeat myself. Hagfish have the ability to excrete a milky and fibrous slime from glands running their body which once it comes into contact with water can expand up to 20 liters of sticky, gelatinous material. 

In short, this defense can be summarized as following: Predator tries to take a bite -> Seconds later its mouth is filled with some weird shit that causes it to choke-> Frantic swimming ensues as it tries to free itself from the weird shit -> Often death by choking ensues -> Meanwhile, hagfish is laughing hysterically

Here's a video showing the whole process, the good stuff begins around 00:25:

And here's a video if you want to have showing the slime and how it expands in water:

But what baffled some researchers from the Chapman University and the University of Guelph, is how hagfish actually manage to survive that very first attack, since the slime is released after the hagfish is bitten:

However, because the slime is released after the hagfish is bitten, such a defence strategy is only effective if the hagfish can survive the initial bite. These observations raise the possibility that hagfishes possess adaptations that allow them to survive attacks by biting predators such as sharks [source]

Hence, they set out to answer this question and today released their findings on a paper called " Flaccid [editors note: LOL] skin protects hagfishes from shark bites". 

Initially, the scientists had two theories; i) the skin is puncture-resistant or ii) their loose and flaccid body makes it difficult for predators to get a good bite. After examining their skin (which lacks scales, indicating it's not puncture resistant at all) they were surprised to find it was more resistant than they expected, although not resistant enough to protect them from a shark bite:

While these results rule out exceptional puncture resistance as an explanation for the ability of hagfishes to survive shark bites, the performance of hagfish skin is notable because hagfishes lack scales, which are known to boost puncture resistance in some cases by an order of magnitude. How hagfish skin achieves this level of puncture resistance without scales is unknown and worthy of further study. 

So, after some more testing they concluded that their survival ability is all thanks to their body design:

 Simulated shark bites on hagfish and their closest living relatives, lamprey, as well as whole animal inflation tests, revealed that the loose attachment of hagfish skin to the rest of the body and the substantial ‘slack volume' in the subcutaneous sinus protect hagfish musculature and viscera from penetrating teeth.   [source]

Interestingly, the video I included in this post was also the inspiration for the study!

 "This video really was the inspiration for our entire study. A sizable slack volume in hagfishes, combined with minimal attachment of the skin to the muscle, allows the body to slip out of harm's way even when the skin is punctured." said Douglas Fudge, Ph.D., lead author of the study and associate professor of biological sciences at Chapman University. [source]

So that's pretty much the summary of this new study. You can click here if you want to read more about the methodology, statistics and other technicalities. If you don't have academia access rumors say you can access it with a cool website called sci hub for free, but that would be illegal so don't! 

With not much else to say, let me conclude today's post with a cute hagfish, enjoy:

Want a kiss ? (credit)

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