Kangaroo rat dodges rattlesnake strike

High speed recording of sidewinder rattlesnake (Crotalus cerastes) striking at a desert kangaroo rat (Dipodomys deserti). The animals are free-ranging in their natural desert habitat at night, and filmed with high speed cameras using near-IR lights invisible to both species. The video is recorded at 500 frames per second, and playback is slowed down about 30 times. This clip shows the rapid response of desert kangaroo rats (Dipodomys deserti) after detecting a strike from a sidewinder rattlesnake (Crotalus cerastes). After detecting the oncoming strike, the kangaroo rat leaps vertically into the air and was well above the snake and out of the strike trajectory before the snake reached the kangaroo rat. The reaction time of the kangaroo rat (time from strike initiation to first response of the kangaroo rat) was found to be the most important performance metric determining whether a strike would be successful or not. Every 11.3 ms delay in reaction time after a snake strikes doubles the probability the kangaroo