The sneakiest tricksters of the animal kingdom - Eldridge Adams

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A male firefly glows above a field on a summer's night, emitting a series of enticing flashes. He hopes a nearby female will respond with her own light show and mate with him. Sadly for this male, it won't turn out quite the way he plans. A female from a different species mimics his pulsing patterns. By tricking the male with her promise of partnership, she lures him in and turns him into an easy mule. He's been deceived. Behavioral biologists have identified three defining hallmarks of deception by non-human animals. It must mislead the receiver, the deceiver must benefit, and it can't simply be an accident. In this case, we know that the predatory firefly's signal isn't an accident because she flexibly adjusts her flash pattern to match males of different species. Based on this definition, where is animal deception seen in nature? Camouflage is a good starting point and one of the most familiar examples of animal trickery. The leaf-tailed gecko and the octopus fool the viewers by blending into the surfaces on which they rest. Other animals use mimicry to protect themselves. Harmless scarlet cane snakes have evolved red, yellow, and black patterns resembling those of the venomous eastern coral snake to benefit from the protective warnings these markings convey. Even some plants use mimicry. There are orchids that look and smell like female wasps to attract hapless males, who end up pollinating the plant. Some of these animals benefit by having fixed characteristics that are evolutionarily suited to their environments. But in other cases, the deceiver seems to anticipate the reactions of other animals and to adjust its behavior accordingly. Sensing a threat, the octopus will rapidly change its colors to match its surroundings. Dwarf chameleons color match their environments more closely when they see a bird predator rather than a snake. Birds, after all, have better color vision. One of the more fascinating examples of animal deception comes from the fork-tailed drongo. This bird sits atop tall trees in the Kalahari Desert, surveying the landscape for predators and calling when it senses a threat. That sends meerkats, pied battlers, and others dashing for cover. But the drongo will also sound a false alarm when those other species have captured prey. As the meerkats and babblers flee, the drongo swoops down to steal their catches. This tactic works about half the time, and it provides drongos with much of their food. There are fewer solid