Random Animals Can Survive Being Eaten Alive (11 items)

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  (#1) Newt

  • Pleurodelinae

  Some animals on this list survive by taking the plunge all the way through an animal's digestive tract, then popping out on the other side as if they walked through a field of flowers. However, this is not the case with the rough skinned newt. This newt looks like easy prey, but any animal who eats it is in for an unfortunate surprise. Frogs often swallow them for dinner, and once inside, the newt quickly blows that popsicle stand. Their skins contain a toxin which they secrete when a predator consumes them. In the case of many frogs, they lack any resistance to this toxin, and it kills them from the inside out. Once the frog dies or is at least helpless, the newt just climbs back out through the mouth and continues on its merry way.

  Fun fact: this defense mechanism actually helps curb the population of an invasive bullfrog species. The bullfrog, which evolved in an environment without the newt, never gained the proper resistance to its toxins.
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  (#2) Nematode

  • Nematoda

  Several parasites can survive being eaten, but these creatures primarily live in the gut in the first place so they hardly count for this list. However, the nematode is a little different.

  These little worms live in a variety of environments, including salt water, fresh water, and even soil. In addition to natural environments, the nematode can also survive inside the bodies of animals. They survive off of bacteria in the guts of slugs and other creatures, and even stomach acid can fail to kill them. Though generally not eaten on purpose, they can be ingested out of water and soil that is consumed.

  Unfortunately, this creature can also kill animals that eat it, and does so with surprising regularity. In humans, they cause diseases, and in some animals, they destroy them from the inside out. Hundreds of thousands of human deaths have been linked to these little invaders. 
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  (#3) Sea cucumber

  • Holothuroidea

  Sea cucumbers are curious creatures in the first place. Squishy all over, they often get eaten by animals and people as delicacies. It is fortunate, then, that sea cucumbers are one of the best regenerators in the known world. Though they heal wounds the same way most other organisms do on a molecular level, sea cucumbers can direct their healing process towards regenerating entire organs. But it doesn't stop there. If you were to take a sea cucumber, and cut it into several pieces, each piece would actually be able to regrow a whole new sea cucumber! In this way, a sea cucumber acts as a tasty treat for other sea creatures without actually losing its life.

  As you might guess, this led to scientists heavily researching how they regenerate to see if humans might one day utilize this ability in modern medicine.
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  (#4) Axolotl

  • Ambystoma mexicanum

  Perhaps one of the cutest animals on this list, the axolotl, holds no qualms about becoming another animal's lunch. This ancient creature likely survived for so long because of its remarkable regenerative abilities. There won't be any scarring from regenerated areas to show that the animal was ever harmed, and while similar species can regenerate parts of themselves, no salamander does it better than the axolotl. If attacked, the axolotl can safely lose large parts of its body, even vital organs, and still keep going. Even more mind blowing, the axolotl accepts organs from other organisms transplanted into its body. 

  This is another species that scientists are frantically researching for potential medical advances, especially considering their status as critically endangered organisms!
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  (#5) Flatworm

  • Platyhelminthes

  Flatworms live on the edge. From bizarre mating habits involving penis sword fights to living as parasites on certain species, they are amazing and vaguely creepy animals. However, they can survive being eaten in two ways.

  Some species of flatworms actually prefer to be eaten, often by animals like raccoons and dogs, where they reproduce in the intestine and then feed off the host's body. On the other hand, with ocean-living flatworms, getting eaten as prey makes for a daily possibility. Luckily, the flatworm sees it as a minor inconvenience. These creatures can actually reproduce by growing another flatworm entirely from a severed piece. Even if another animal bites off a flatworm's head, it can simply regrow the entire head and keep on swimming. In some rather freaky instances, flatworms can grow two heads on the same body, in place of a head, and each head controls half of the body.
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  (#6) Sea star

  • Asteroidea

  Though impressive that lizards will regrow a tail if it gets cut off, the starfish takes it one step further. These ocean-dwelling creatures mastered the remarkable process of regeneration. If a turtle approaches a sea star and takes a huge bite, the starfish would have few ways to defend itself or escape. But these animals developed an evolutionary trait that makes the need to flee moot. Even if many limbs get bitten off, or the starfish is bitten in half, it will still manage to regrow itself. Remarkably enough, many cases exist of a sea star regenerating itself even if only one arm remains. This process is possible because the starfish keeps most of its vital organs in its arms, rather than in the center of its body.

  So, even if most of its body becomes dinner, the sea star will just keep on going. The only catch: it just might take a year.
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  (#7) Snakes

  • Serpentes

  Considering the fact it's already blind, the brahminy blind snake lives a pretty difficult existence. Its lack of eyes makes it easy pickings for predators, including birds and toads. Luckily, getting eaten isn't always a problem for these little hardy beasts. Researchers discovered this snake can be eaten by specific frogs, and even owls, and managed to survive the process! Once consumed, the snakes continue to move and slither all the way through the digestion tract of a frog; if eaten by an owl, it may pop out in an owl pellet or when the owl attempts to feed its young.

  They have the ability to do this because, specifically for the frogs, the snake is often mistaken for a worm, their more common prey. The frog stomach cannot digest a scaled vertebrate, so the snake is able to get out, likely traumatized but otherwise unscathed.
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  (#8) Black Turban Snail

  • Tegula funebralis

  Some aquatic snails made the godly decision to never die, even when consumed by birds. Scientists tested the snail's resilience by selecting four species and feeding them to mallard ducks. While three of the four species died, one made it through the digestive caverns of the mallard. The Hydrobia ulvae passed right through the digestive tract, a five-hour journey, and came through the other side intact and alive.

  This might be possible not just because the snail itself is hardy, but also because birds push food through their body quickly in order to get energy as fast as possible. This lower digestive efficiency means snails can hitch a ride and be transported all over by these birds, safely waiting in their gut. Once out of the duck, they still grow as fully functional animals.
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  (#9) Grove snail

  • Cepaea nemoralis

  Snail shells help to keep a snail alive, sometimes so well the snail survives being eaten. Tornatellides boeningi, a tiny snail indigenous to Hahajima Island in Japan, get devoured birds known as white-eyes. Researchers decided to see how strong the snails' shells really were, and fed over a hundred snails to the birds. Shockingly, the snails actually lived through being eaten, emerging from the bird's poop afterwards! Not all of them survived, of course, but at least 15 percent of the snails made it through the bird's gut.

  One snail specimen was even found to have been pregnant before being eaten, and healthily gave birth shortly after being pooped out of the bird. Now that's a hard working mom!
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  (#10) Ostracod

  • Ostracoda

  You may know of the seed shrimp by another name: the ostracod. These itty bitty crustaceans measure in at about a millimeter long, but they're able to survive even the harshest conditions and circumstances. Case in point is what happens if a predator consumes a seed shrimp. Seed shrimp make common prey for white sucker fish, known as catostomus commersoni. However, once eaten, the shrimp can pass through the fish without dying! Even more impressive is the fact females who came out the other side unharmed remained in good enough shape to reproduce as if nothing ever happened. This means that the seed shrimp can utilize the guts of fish as a means of transportation to new regions.
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  (#11) Mussel

  Mussels, as their name might suggest, are incredibly strong when it comes to survival. This is a lucky quality for them, because they are a favorite prey of many species (including humans), particularly sea anemones. If a shell or hinge to their shell is damaged, an anemone can eat a mussel, digesting it right out of its shell. However, if a mussel gets nabbed by a crafty, sticky anemone arm, and is still completely intact, it undergoes a different story. Researchers found that mussels can be eaten, pass through the anemone completely unharmed, and emerge from the creature without any harm to the animal inside. This happens because mussel shells seal completely and are strong enough to survive digestive efforts of anemone.

  Mealworms with intact exoskeletons can also survive being lunched on by an anemone, but are pretty much not prey to these creatures, given their watery habitat.

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