Pufferfish, also known as puffers, balloonfish, or blowfish, are well known to swell up into a ball-like shape as a defense mechanism in order to appear larger and scare away predators. They also have
Spikes of Doom to go along with it.
Some pufferfish also have the added bonus of being pretty damn poisonous to go with it. The majority of their bodies are steeped in toxin, and if you were to eat one, you'd die pretty dang quickly. Course, in places like Japan where people consider them a delicacy, professional chefs have to be extremely careful in cooking them.
Examples:
Literature
- In Discworld, the Bloat blowfish is ridiculously poisonous, making it a favorite weapon of some professional assassins. - its "puffing" mechanism seems to be chemically based so if you get stabbed by something covered with its poison (or eat one - unless prepared by an expert), you will... puff. They say after blowfish poison is used, you don't need to remove the body, merely repaint the room.
Live-Action Television
- On Enterprise, Dr. Phlox's species have a reflexive ability to inflate their heads when threatened, in a manner similar to a puffer fish expanding its body.
- The Columbo episode ''Murder Under Glass" centers around the killer- a trained chef- using blowfish poison to kill a victim. Columbo is tipped off to the exact poison and method later in the film when the killer is serving fugu sashimi and is revealed to be licensed and trained to prepare the fish.
Video Games
Western Animation
