Amazonian Wild Cats Use Mimicry To Outsmart Monkey Prey

Wild Amazonian cats mimic the vocalizations of small animals in order to lure them for dinner. However they don’t tell the tiny beasts that they are going to be the main course.

Researchers first recorded the incident in 2005 when a group of eight pied tamarins were feeding in a ficus tree. They then observed a margay emitting calls similar to those made by tamarin babies. This attracted the attention of a tamarin “sentinel,” which climbed down from the tree to investigate the sounds coming from a tangle of vines called lianas. While the sentinel monkey started vocalizing to warn the rest of the group of the strange calls, the monkeys were clearly confounded by these familiar vocalizations, choosing to investigate rather than flee. Four other tamarins climbed down to assess the nature of the calls. At that moment, a margay emerged from the foliage walking down the trunk of a tree in a squirrel-like fashion, jumping down and then moving towards the monkeys. Realizing the ruse, the sentinel screamed an alarm and sent the other tamarins fleeing.

Link via Uncertain Times

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Chook the Lyrebird

(YouTube link)

You might recall Sir David Attenborough introducing us to the lyrebird, a master of mimcry (and later the wonderful remix). Chook the lyrebird lives at the Adelaide Zoo. After a period of construction at the zoo, Chook was able to recreate the sounds of hammers, saws, and power tools exactly. Link -via Arbroath

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A Sexually Deceptive Orchid…

"...so convincing that male wasps will mate with it to the point of ejaculation."

After reading that in Harper's Magazine ("Findings" section, Sept '08), I Googled the relevant terms and found that this has been known for a century, and there's an abundance of such reports, most of them originating from Australia.

Some orchids can imitate the olfactory cues used by males to locate females, including producing pollinator-specific sex pheromones. As the pollinator approaches the orchid, he is again deceived by the coloration or shape of the blossom.

The original research was performed on Australian tongue orchids (Cryptostylis species). Curious to know what they looked like, I searched Google images and found the embedded photo above at the link below.

Remember, to a male wasp, these orchids look and smell like female wasps. What they look like to you is not relevant here.

Link - via harpers

From the Upcoming Queue, submitted by Minnesotastan.

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Indonesian Mimic Octopus

The Indonesian mimic octopus, Thaumoctopus mimicus, takes camouflage and mimicry into a new level:

This octopus is able to copy the physical likeness and movement of more than fifteen different species, including sea snakes, lionfish, flatfish, brittle stars, giant crabs, sea shells, stingrays, jellyfish, sea anemones, and mantis shrimp. This animal is so intelligent that it is able to discern which dangerous sea creature to impersonate that will present the greatest threat to its current possible predator.

Ursi’s Blog has the video clip of the mimic octopus in action: Link [embedded YouTube clip]

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