Escape response, escape reaction, or escape behaviour is a possible reaction in response to stimuli

Stimulus (physiology)

In physiology, a stimulus is a detectable change in the internal or external environment. The ability of an organism or organ to respond to external stimuli is called sensitivity....

 indicative of danger, in particular, it initiates an escape motion of an animal

Animal

Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...

. In the cases of reflectory reactions, the escape response may also be called escape reflex

Escape reflex

Escape reflex, a kind of escape response, is a simple reflectory reaction in response to stimuli indicative of danger, that initiates an escape motion of an animal....

.

The term is also used in a more general setting: avoiding of unpleasant or dangerous situations.

Studying escape reactions has a number of practical applications: fish breeding, insect repellent

Insect repellent

An insect repellent is a substance applied to skin, clothing, or other surfaces which discourages insects from landing or climbing on that surface. There are also insect repellent products available based on sound production, particularly ultrasound...

  design, preventing aircraft-bird collisions, etc.

Examples

• Escape motion
  • Lobstering
    Caridoid escape reaction
    The Caridoid Escape Reaction, also known as lobstering or tail-flipping, refers to an innate escape mechanism in marine and freshwater crustaceans such as lobsters, krill, shrimp and crayfish....
    
     of krill
    Krill
    Krill is the common name given to the order Euphausiacea of shrimp-like marine crustaceans. Also known as euphausiids, these small invertebrates are found in all oceans of the world...
    
    
• Hiding (sheltering, camouflage)
• Motionlessness
• A well-known escape response of squid
  Squid
  Squid are cephalopods of the order Teuthida, which comprises around 300 species. Like all other cephalopods, squid have a distinct head, bilateral symmetry, a mantle, and arms. Squid, like cuttlefish, have eight arms arranged in pairs and two, usually longer, tentacles...
  
  s is to eject ink.
• Shrimp
  Shrimp
  Shrimp are swimming, decapod crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. Adult shrimp are filter feeding benthic animals living close to the bottom. They can live in schools and can swim rapidly backwards. Shrimp are an important...
  
   may eject bioluminescent matter.
• In some animals escape response includes emptying of the bowels.