Never tickle a slow loris

All very interesting. My two favourites :

The Slow Loris

Their huge round eyes, adorable faces and almost human-like paws have made slow lorises one of the internet's favourite animals. Being nocturnal, the little primates seem almost docile during the day: when they do move around, they do so slowly and deliberately. When threatened, they tend to freeze. But slow lorises also have a lethal ace up their sleeve, almost literally.

When threatened, a loris will often raise its arms above its head. Far from being a sign of surrender, this is a defensive posture, bringing a gland around its elbow close to its mouth. By combining the oil secreted from the gland with saliva, the loris creates a strong venom, which it then smears onto the top of its head, making it a toxic morsel for any predator.

The loris can also keep the venom inside its mouth, delivering it in a bite. The incisors at the front of the bottom jaw help to conduct the liquid upwards, ensuring it gets into any wound it can inflict. According to Anne-Isola Nekaris of Oxford Brookes University, a bite from a slow loris is "intensely painful". "In extreme cases, bite recipients may enter anaphylactic shock, sometimes resulting in death," Nekaris says.

So, the next time you watch a video of a slow loris being "tickled" with its arms in the air, remember it is not enjoying the experience: it is waiting for a chance to strike.


The Moustache Toad

Moustaches are fun, right? Not when the male who is wearing it is a three-inch-long amphibian from slow-flowing streams in southern China. Each spring, male Emei moustache toads (Leptobrachium boringii) sprout between 10 and 16 spines on their upper lip. Made largely of keratin, the same protein that makes up our nails, the spikes can grow up to 5mm in length.

At the same time, the males develop thicker skin and their forearms bulk out. Then they wrestle, attempting to stab each other with their outrageous facial decorations. "The spines are a bit like a sharpened pencil," says Cameron Hudson, an ecologist at the University of Sydney who has studied the toads. "They are sharp, but you need to put some force behind it to break the skin. The toads scratch your hands while you're holding them, but they aren't sharp enough to cut a human. Toads, on the other hand, occasionally get bruises or puncture wounds on their underbellies and arms from combat."

Their nuptial spines are nothing compared to two other amphibians: the hairy frog and the Spanish ribbed newt. When threatened they break their own bones and shove them through their skin. For the frog, this creates claws like those of the superhero Wolverine, with which it can fend off assailants. Meanwhile, the newt pushes its ribs out of its body to give any predators a nasty mouthful.
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170515-the-animals-that-look-helpless-but-are-secretly-fearsome