Liars, cheats and copycats by James O’Hanlon
Of course, cheating isn’t just about hiding in plain sight. O’Hanlon devotes chapters to describing how animals imitate other species and how science has yet to explain how much of this masquerade is possible. Some animals have evolved to resemble other completely unrelated species. We assume plants can’t “see,” but species like the chameleon vine can change their leaf shape to match the nearby plant. Incredibly, they even do this when placed near artificial plants.
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As he showed in his previous book, Silk and Poison: The incredible lives of spidersO’Hanlon is a skilled science communicator who can explain complex scientific ideas without confusing the non-specialist reader; He writes in a conversational and interesting style. The pages turn easily and the reader feels smarter.
O’Hanlon confirms that “no part of this book was written using generative AI software”; This disclaimer can unfortunately be expected to appear more frequently. Instead, he claims that the book is “the work of a completely gentle, organic and generally harmless human being.” It’s nice to know that creatures like this still exist.
We tend to morally judge people who deliberately deceive other people, and such actions can actually be considered criminal. O’Hanlon admits that he doesn’t have a simple answer to whether an animal species knows when it’s deceptive, except in cases involving other animals with experience of human behavior, such as primates and dogs. But he seems inclined to think that the weight of the evidence leans towards that conclusion.
