Do Animals Lie?

What would you do if you were caught in a tough spot, when his tie doesn’t really look good but you're on a tight schedule and already running behind? Well, a little white lie is always fair game. Similar to humans, many animals bluff their way through a stressful situation for their own gain.

The blue jay is probably among the most gifted liars nature has to offer - these smart birds imitate hawk noises to keep other birds away from bird feeders, hence greedily keeping the food for themselves. When talking about song sparrows, some individuals are inclined to give out exaggerated signs of their aggressiveness, while others underplay it. The video under 'Sources and Links' shows how the sparrow shows signs of aggression like the waving of wings and soft songs to shoo away the dummy bird, yet flies away after not receiving any reaction.

Enough said about birds, what about man’s best friend? A study revealed that dogs can in fact lie to humans. Twenty-seven dogs were trained to differentiate between a cooperative woman, who would give the dog a treat, and a competitive one who refused to give the dog a treat and instead kept it in her pocket. When the dogs were asked to show the ‘food’ which was placed in one of three boxes, they led the partner who was more ‘cooperative’ to the food and the more ‘competitive’ partner was likely to not be shown where the food was kept. This proved that the dogs lied to the mean lady to make sure she doesn’t get the treat and keep it to herself.

Other animals, like the eastern gray squirrel of North America, will hold a nut in their teeth and pretend to bury it in a variety of places before actually doing so, a tactic to keep other squirrel thieves guessing. Cephalopods, considered the smartest invertebrates in the ocean, are also masters of deceit. Apart from the brilliant camouflage techniques, males also deceive rival males by displaying male courtship patterns to receptive females on one side of the body, and simultaneously displaying female patterns to a single rival male on the other, thus preventing the rival from disrupting courtship.

The animal kingdom, much like our own society, is full of lies and deceit and even animals have to look out for themselves in order to survive and come out on top.