An Introduction

An introduction to mimicry and deception of animals

Introduction

Mimicry and deception of animals is a topic of great interest to evolutionary biologists. Mimicry is when an animal resembles another creature or inanimate object for either defence or to gain other advantages. The mimicking species may behave, sound, smell or look like the creature or object it is duplicating. Deception has evolved under natural selection in conflicts between predator and prey, in competition for food and/or in competitions for reproduction (Bond & Robinson, (1988).

Mitchell & Thompson (1986) acknowledge four levels of deception in animals: false markings on animals, false behaviour, feigned injury and verbal deception. These levels will be further explored in detail in the future but for now a few examples will be given for each.

Batesian mimicry is when a harmless animal has evolved to imitate the appearance of a harmful one such as a harmless red milk snake imitating the appearance of a venomous coral snake.

Figure 1: Comparative photo of a coral snake (right) and a red milk snake (left). Photo sourced from: kingsnake.com

False behaviour can be seen in distraction displays such as the broken-wing display. This occurs when a predator is approaching a nest. The bird will walk away from the nest with a wing hung low, dragging on the ground to appear as an east target. Distracting the predator’s attention away from the nest.

Feigning death is the simple act of “playing dead”. A deception act used as a defensive method of avoiding predation as predators prefer to take live prey.

Figure 2: Opossum feigning death. Photo sourced from: http://en.wikipedia.org/

Verbal deception is the use of your voice or sound to deceive others such as the tufted capuchin monkey utilising false alarms as opportunities to grab extra food.

Each level of mimicry and deception in animals can contain numerous deceptive techniques that can prove to quite effective and examples of these will be explored in detail each week.

References:

Bond, C. F., & Robinson, M. (1988). The evolution of deception. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 12, 295-307.

Mitchell, Robert W.; Thompson, Nicholas S. (1986). Deception, Perspectives on Human and Nonhuman Deceit. SUNY Press. pp. 21–29.ISBN 1438413327.