In an excerpt from his new book Liars, Cheats and Copycats, biologist James O'Hanlon looks at the fork-tailed drongo, a small African bird with more than fifty deceptive calls. Drongos imitate meerkat alarm calls so the meerkats flee, then steal the food they leave behind, and they fool other bird species the same way. O'Hanlon notes that research is still early and that species living in groups are the most likely deceivers. Scientists remain careful about calling this lying, because that would assume human intentions behind animal behaviour.

It is a neat lesson in critical thinking: how do we tell what a creature does from what we read into it?

Source: Live Science (2026-10-31)

Summarised by the FTI newsdesk.