tonic immobility

Also known as playing dead, feigning death, playing possum, thanatosis, animal hypnosis, Immobility Response, Tonic, apparent death

behavior in which animals take on the appearance of being dead

Research

1,355 papers

Tonic Immobility as a Defensive Trauma Response to Rape: Bridging Public Health and Law.Violence against women · 2024
Tonic immobility as a survival, adaptive response and as a recovery mechanism.Progress in brain research · 2022
Tonic immobility and phenomenal consciousness in animals: a review.Frontiers in psychology · 2025
Neurochemical anatomy of dorsal and tonic immobility responses.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2022
Tonic immobility triggered by COVID-19-related trauma is associated with long-term PTSD symptoms.Journal of anxiety disorders · 2024

via PubMed

Wikidata facts

Image: ApusApusKlausRoggel02.jpg

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Commons category: Apparent death

Sources (2)

via Wikidata · CC0

~21 min read

Article

A Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) playing dead A barred grass snake (Natrix helvetica) playing dead

Apparent death is a behavior in which animals take on the appearance of being dead. It is an immobile state most often triggered by a predatory attack and can be found in a wide range of animals from insects and crustaceans to mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Apparent death is separate from the freezing behavior seen in some animals.