Fitz Seminar: 'Deceptive strategies of the fork-tailed drongo' - by Dr Tom Flower

Animals commonly deceive each other, but just as in Aesop's fable 'The boy who cried wolf', they cease responding to deceptive signals that are made too frequently. This constrains deceptive behaviour, but where species can change their deceptive signal, deception rackets might be maintained? I show that Fork-tailed drongos deceive other animals, using both their own and mimicked alarm calls, to scare other animals and steal their food. Furthermore, I demonstrate that other species are more likely to be deceived by mimicked alarm calls, and that by employing vocal mimicry to vary their false alarms, drongos may maintain deception. This work illustrates the sophisticated strategies employed by animals in deceptive communication and provides evidence of function for vocal mimicry, a common but little understood behaviour. I conclude by discussing my current research plans investigating the extent to which drongos strategically adjust their deceptive behaviour, and how drongos acquire the ability to make deceptive mimicked alarm calls.