It's horrifying knowing that there are a bunch of creepy animals that live in the world. But what's more horrifying is that some of them still manage to live after having their heads or some part of them chopped off. Comparatively, the human body does not seem this exciting.
Apart from the zombie stories we've heard, the dead human body has shown some movement like jerking of the limbs, but it is fairly insignificant to what these animals display. However, these are not something spooky but have scientific explanations.
Here is a list of these amazing yet grotesque animals which show movement after death.
Cockroaches
Cockroaches have everyone screaming, especially flying cockroaches. It gives almost everyone a near death experience once that disgusting insect takes a flight to harass its victims. But there is more to this little brown nightmare than we actually know. Cockroaches are often cited to be the only survivors of a nuclear holocaust. Turns out headless roaches are capable of living for weeks.
Cockroaches do not have blood pressure like humans. They also don't have a huge network of blood vessels, but an open circulatory system with much less pressure. After you cut their heads off, very often their necks would seal off just by clotting. So without the brain, the body can still function in terms of very simple reactions, "They could stand, react to touch and move." And it is not just the body that can survive decapitation. The lonely head can thrive, too, waving its antennae back and forth for several hours until it runs out of steam. Horrifying isnt it?
Venomous Snakes
When faced with a snake, people either freeze in horror, run away screaming or try to kill them by cutting their head off. While the latter course of action may seem like the surefire way to avoid getting bitten, it turns out that might not be the case. Snakes can survive, and even fight you after their head has been cut off. And guess what? Poison from a severed snake head is as lethal as it was before i.e. when the reptile was whole.
Here is a video of a decapitated snake.
Frogs
These slimy pond dwellers may not turn into a prince after being kissed, but they sure have a bunch of tricks for you after they've been decapitated. After cutting off their head, their body still responds, not because of the brain is giving signals for it to move, instead, it is a simple chemical discharge causing a flow of a signal in the animal.
This is because the muscles of a frog are triggered by electrical signals which can continue to help function way after death. If salt or any other ionic substance comes in contact with it, we see movement.
Spiders
In the spider kingdom, it's the female spiders who have all the power. The females not only control how long the sex will last but in some species, they often eat the males right in the middle of the action. Scientists have found out quite recently that some male spiders have stood up to this injustice.
Here's a brush up on spider biology. Male spiders actually have two penises called pedipalps, which is located near their face. What happens during this copulation is that the male breaks off his own pedipalps while trying to get away, which is called the eunuch phenomenon. After leaving its detachable penis to finish inseminating the female, the male orb-web spider fights to the death. Without the extra weight of its sexual organs, this spider can outlast its competition, new research has found. Believe it or not, the severed organ is actually faster and more effective than when it had the rest of the spider still attached.
This supports what the researchers call a "gloves-off" mating strategy. The spiders have nothing to live for other than protecting their potential offspring. They are able to fend off other males because they are lighter in weight after dispensing their palps.
Chicken
Calling someone a chicken may be insulting, but chickens are not losers after all. If you get in their way, they might pick your head off. Chickens can run around with their heads cut off — and Modern Farmer has the explanation behind how the animals can survive decapitation.
The answer often lies in the way chickens are killed — if a butcher slices a chicken's head too high, the slice may miss the jugular veins. A too-high slice can also take away the chicken's forebrain but leave the brain stem and cerebellum, allowing the bird to continue moving and, in some cases, breathing.
