This world we live in is full of amazing creatures that can
do spectacularly deceptive things to get what they want. Whether they want to
protect their young, defend their territory, to feed themselves or protect
themselves from becoming food, animals have devised a myriad of methods for
duping their companions (Schuiling 2004, El-Hani,
Queiroz & Stjernfelt 2010). Animals use visual appearance as well as
sounds, smells and behaviours in order to deceive each other and enhance their
chances of survival. (Matsumoto-Oda & Tomonaga 2005, Wickler
2013)
Over the next few weeks I will have the pleasure of
introducing you to the many styles of deception, such as defensive and
aggressive mimicry, automimicry, crypsis, distraction displays, and tactical
deception to name a few (Vane-Wright 1976).
You will also be introduced to a small assortment of the many incredible
animals that perform these fraudulent feats.
El-Hani, CN, Queiroz, J & Stjernfelt, F 2010,
'Firefly Femmes Fatales: A Case Study in the Semiotics of Deception', Biosemiotics,
vol 3, no. 1, pp. 33-55.
Matsumoto-Oda,
A & Tomonaga, M 2005, '“Intentional” control of sound production found in
leaf-clipping display of Mahale chimpanzees', Journal of Ethology, vol
23, no. 2, pp. 109-112.
Schuiling,
GA 2004, 'Deceive, and be deceived!', Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics
and Gynecology, vol 25, no. 2, pp. 170-174.
Vane-Wright,
RI 1976, 'A unified classification of mimetic resemblances', Biological
Journal of the Linnean Society, vol 8, no. 1, pp. 25-56.
Wickler, W
2013, 'Understanding Mimicry – with Special Reference to Vocal Mimicry', Ethology,
vol 119, no. 4, pp. 259-269.
Nice use of alliteration in the title and subtitle. Makes the blog quite appealing! I’m intrigued to see how your blog develops over the next few weeks. Will you be covering all animals from insects to mammals? I wonder how much convergent evolution has occurred in the different groups and how many weird and wonderful examples there are out there? I’m looking forward to this!
ReplyDeleteThankyou Tasmin :) Yes there are many wonderfully complex animals out there! So many it is hard to chose which ones to post about next! If you look you will see my next blog post on the Blue Alcon Butterfly talks briefly about some speculation of convergent evolution between a few other species of butterfly. I will keep an eye out for some more when I am choosing animals in the future :)
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