nature
Survival Pranks
By Mik
e Geo rge
Mike George is our regular contributor on wildlife and the countryside in France. He is a geologist and naturalist, living in the Jurassic area of the Charente
LAST MONTH WE LOOKED AT THE (FAIRLY) INNOCENT AMUSEMENTS THAT HUMANS CAN INDULGE IN AT THE EXPENSE OF THEIR FELLOWS, BUT ARE THERE ANY EXAMPLES OF PRANK-PLAYING IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM?
T
his is a very difficult subject to deal with. For a start, to suggest that animals play pranks implies that they have a sense of humour, and there are still many zoologists who reject any suggestion of human-like emotions in animals as “anthropomorphism” and one of the deadliest of sins. Unquestionably there are plenty of examples in Nature of animals fooling each other, but these are almost all strategies to avoid being noticed or to gain a meal. Most forms of camouflage are attempts to fool or mislead a predator or a prey item. However, there is in no sense a
humorous element in this – it is life, grim and earnest. Eat or be eaten.
active displayer. The male bears upon his nether end a tail of astounding design. Two long, striped feathers curve away like Lyre, liar! the frame of a musical lyre, and in It is unfair to include between them lies a fan Some creatures take mating rituals in this of fine, long feathers. The category, as this is a vital their strategy to the male perches himself on means of continuing the a cleared patch of forest limit beyond species, and it could be floor and begins said that all is fair in love displaying these splendid and war. However, some creatures take tail-feathers, dancing and calling their strategy to the limit beyond which it seductively. A female, who is small, almost seems like a low prank. undecorated and drably coloured, draws near, but she is very difficult to lure into The Superb Lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae) of Australia is a very any final decision.
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