An alluring meal or a luring trap? More deceptive tricks animals use to get an easy meal

Continuing on for last week, here are a few more animals that have devised ways to trick their prey into coming to them so they can sit back, relax and enjoy the meal.

Striated Heron (Butorides striata) using a dragonfly to lure fish

(Source: Biodiversity Explorer. Image by DeWet)

Herons

While there are many animals that have specialised appendages in order to lure their prey in, not all are so lucky. Some species of heron have not let this discourage them. Green Herons (Butorides virescens), Squacco Herons (Ardeola ralloides), Striated Herons (Butorides striata) and Goliath Herons (Ardea goliath) have all learnt that if they place a flower, a feather, a stick an insect or some other item in the water, that that they can trick fish into coming toward what they think is a food item and get an easy feed (Gavin and Solomon, 2009; Ruxton and Hansell, 2011). This method is thought to have evolved from ‘passive bait fishing’ where birds take advantage of fish being attracted to intimate objects floating by in the water (Ruxton & Hansell, 2011).

Assassin bug Stenolemus bituberus

(Source: Die Raubwanzen der Welt. Image by Jestis)

Assassin Bugs

The assassin bug (Stenolemus bituberus) has a dangerous choice of food; spiders. To get a meal they risk facing a counter attack by the spider that could possibly kill them resulting in the assassin bug becoming the prey. To lower the chances of being attacked, assassin bugs have devised a way to seize spiders when they least expect it; when they are lining up for their dinner. The assassin bug will go up to the edge of a spider’s web and shake it. The spider, thinking an insect has gotten itself caught in the sticky web, comes down to eat it but instead gets attacked by the assassin bug. The assassin bug attacks by piercing its rostrum into the animal and injecting it with its venom, paralysing it. The assassin bug then proceeds to suck the juices out of the insect (Wignall & Taylor, 2009).

Even when not hunting spiders, the assassin bug can still be deceptive. When the assassin bug stalking its prey, as it gets close it alters its footsteps to an uneven pattern so that it blends in with the background noise of the wind moving the plants (Wignall & Taylor, 2009). The poor animal never knew what hit it!

Capable of pulling the face made famous by a particular boot wearing

cat in the movie ‘Shrek 2’, you would never have expected that the 

Margay was capable of dishonesty and deception.

(Source: Fotopedia. Image by unknown)

Margays

While Dr. Fabiano Calleia was studying tamarin monkeys in Brazilian rainforest, he heard the sound of a distressed tamarin pup in the distance. This greatly disturbed the other tamarin monkeys in the troop he was following and they went off to find the defenceless pup. To his astonishment, Dr. Calleia saw that it was not actually a tamarin pup but a margay (Leopardus wiedii) mimicking the sound of a distressed pup to lure the other tamarin monkeys closer (Angier, 2010). Luckily, the tamarin monkeys realised this was the case and a sentinel money screamed and the troop escaped unharmed. While vocal mimicry has been observed in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), harbour seals (Phoca vitulina), killer whales (Orcinus orca), orangutans (Pongo spp.) and African savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana) (Kelley & Healy, 2011), to date, this is the only confirmed case of vocal mimicry used to attract prey.

References

Angier, N., 2010. Why copycats have nine lives; Aping your prey is just one of many surviving-by-disguising strategies in the animal kingdom. Edmonton Journal, p. E.2.

Capable of pulling the face made famous by a particular boot wearing cat in the movie ‘Shrek 2’, you would never have expected that the Margay was capable of dishonesty and deception, n.d., photograph, viewed 20 May 2014

<http://de.fotopedia.com/items/flickr-771396288> 

DeWet, C, n.d., Striated Heron (Butorides striata) using a dragonfly to lure fish, photograph, viewed 20 May 2014
<http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/birds/ardeidae/butorides_striatus.htm>

Jestis, D, n.d., Assassin bug (Stenolemus bituberus), photograph, viewed 20 May 2014
<http://www.reduviidae.de/systematik/emesinae/stenolemus.html>

Gavin, M. C. & Solomon, J. N., 2009. Active and Passive Bait-Fishing by Black-Crowned Night Herons. The Wilson Journal of Ornithology, 121(4), pp. 844 - 845.

Kelley, L. A. & Healy, S. D., 2011. Vocal mimicry. Current Biology, 21(1), pp. R9- R10.

Ruxton, G. D. & Hansell, M. H., 2011. Fishing with a Bait or Lure: A Brief Review of the Cognitive Issues. Ethology, 117(1), pp. 1 - 9.

Wignall, A. E. & Taylor, P. W., 2009. Alternative predatory tactics of an araneophagic assassin bug (Stenolemus bituberus). Acta Ethologica, 12(1), pp. 23 - 27.