The Hunger Game World's Sneakiest Animals

Meet the Steller's jay.

What a bird!

At the moment, he does have a bit of a problem.

It's winter, and food is scarce.

The garden bird table is a lifeline for this jay...

..only dozens of other birds

are making the most of this feast,

so the food is not going to last very long.

But our Steller's jay here has a very clever plan.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say it was downright devious.

A red-shouldered hawk -

it's the neighbourhood's top predator.

Just the sound of its distinctive call

sends all these birds scattering.

The jay knows this.

And it's about to do something that I've never seen or heard before.

JAY IMITATES HAWK

One jay has learned to pull off a pitch-perfect copy

of the hawk's call.

With the other birds tricked,

he's got all of the food to himself.

Look at that!

That's nature at its most devious.

And it turns out, the sneaky Steller's jay

isn't the only one tricking other animals to get itself a meal.

All across the world, animals face the same dilemma -

find food or die.

It really is that simple.

And of course, there's no guarantee

of where their next meal is coming from.

So what can animals do to tip the balance in their favour?

Would they lie, cheat and deceive one another

just to get an advantage, just to survive?

Oh, come on.

Of course they would.

Join me as I meet the world's sneakiest animals,

who'll do whatever it takes to grab themselves a meal.

The rainforest...

..where a supremely sneaky animal faces a real challenge.

The one thing that's apparent in a rainforest like this

is that you're surrounded by insects.

Just listen. OVERLAPPING CHIRPING

There's a vast diversity of these animals living here...

..which would make you think that if you were an insect predator,

you'd have things pretty much your own way.

But I've got to tell you, that isn't necessarily so.

Lightning-fast and agile, flying insects

are some of the hardest things to catch on the planet.

Though one thing is guaranteed to attract their attention...

..flowers.

They draw in insects from far and wide

with their promise of nectar and pollen.

And one predator exploits this to the full.

Meet the mantis.

Or to give it its full name,

the orchid mantis.

It's very aptly named, too.

Look at it. Its whole body

is the perfect mimic of a flower.

To fool its prey, this entire animal's body

is sculpted into a deceitful disguise.

Combined with pin-sharp vision

and a ninja-fast strike,

it makes this mantis a very deadly ambush predator.

But, you know, even with cover as good as this,

the pressure is on.

This mantis is sub-adult at the moment,

which means that it's got to be right on top of its game.

It's got to kill something every few days

or it will simply starve to death.

The problem is, the mantis relies on an insect visiting

the specific flower that it's sitting on to make a strike.

It's a waiting game which could take days.

Ever since Victorian naturalists first discovered this insect,

there's been a suspicion that there's something more going on.

They suspected that the mantis was doing more than just waiting around

in a clever disguise.

The strike rate was just too high.

So could the mantis somehow be attracting insects

in its own right?

James O'Hanlon is an expert in orchid mantis behaviour,

and he's discovering there's far more to this predator

than first meets the eye.

We have a simple experiment set up.

We have two posts in the ground.

On our first post, we have a flower.

Our second post, a small mantis.

And what we're going to do is watch and see

how many of the insects that are buzzing around here

fly up and have a look at each of our posts.

So which one do you want to watch?

I'm going to gamble.

I'm going to go with the mantis. Hit me with a notebook.

BUZZING

Hmm. The flower is certainly attracting attention.

Come on, mantis!

-That's a visit.

-Yeah.

That was a visit. Excellent.

Right. I'm off the mark.

'After a slow start...' And another!

'..the mantis is making headway.'

FLUTTERING

Oh! Did you see that?

Fantastic.

I've not been watching your flower, but the mantis is doing rather well.

-Pretty impressive!

-It is!

But aside from the count,

we've already seen something absolutely remarkable.

Because these bees are visiting the mantis, like that -

and it's just caught another one!

The mantis is attracting insects independently of your flower.

It doesn't need your flower.

Those bees that are coming up to it think that it's a flower.

I've done this experiment over and over again.

More often than not, that little mantis is actually more attractive

than the real flower.

The mimic is better than the thing that it's mimicking.

And that is absolutely astonishing.

So what exactly is going on here?

Well, we need to know how insects see the rainforest.

Their eyes are highly sensitive to certain wavelengths of light,

so to them flowers glow like beacons in the jungle.

James measure the brightness of these flowers

and compared them to the mantis.

And remarkably, he's discovered that this dazzling fake in the forest

is a brighter stimulus than any flower.

Tricked into visiting a deadly trap,

there's no escape.

The deception at work here is aggressive mimicry,

in that the mantis is adopting a disguise, in this case a flower,

to lure in its prey, and that is the key.

It's the mantis and not the flower

which is bringing in the insects which it can then predate.

Not only is this creature exquisitely beautiful,

it's remarkably ruthless,

and in my opinion, totally amazing.

BIRDSONG

MUSIC: One Way Or Another by Blondie

Across the world, animals have adapted their bodies in extreme ways

to lure their prey.

# I'm gonna get ya, get ya, get ya, get ya, one way or another

# I'm gonna win ya

# I'll get ya, I'll get ya... #

In Hawaii,

the carnivorous caterpillar has morphed into a predatory plant.

# One way or another

# I'm gonna get ya, I'll get ya

# I'll get ya, get ya, get ya... #

The bioluminescent bait of the deep-sea anglerfish

tempts its prey.

# One way or another

# I'm gonna get ya, I'll get ya

# I'll get ya, get ya, get ya... #

And in caves in New Zealand,

the glow worm, with its luminous tail and sticky secretions,

has created a tantalising trap.

# One way or another

# I'm gonna get ya, I'll get ya

# I'll get ya, get ya, get ya

# One way or another... #

This veritable rogues' gallery

is the result of millions of years of artful adaptation,

all in aid of catching the next meal.

But changing the way you look isn't the only way of setting a trap.

Out on the prairie, a new tenant

has moved into a deserted den...

..a burrowing owl...

..and she has chicks just a few weeks old,

and they are all hungry.

They eat insects, and lots of them.

CHICK CHIRPS

The female spends every waking hour trying to find enough food.

And the stakes, well, they're really high.

You see, 96% of all chick deaths are down to starvation.

CHICKS CHIRP

But, luckily, there's a sneaky solution to this problem.

Cattle graze across these grasslands.

And what goes in...

must come out.

Baked by the sun, the cow dung is ready for collection.

Could it really be dung for dinner?

Of course not.

But it could be considered a rather devious dinner party...

..because the dung attracts some unsuspecting guests.

Little do they know, it's them who are on the menu.

CHIRPING

And this is where it gets really clever,

because little insects attract bigger prey.

Superb.

You see, instead of flying for miles to find food,

now she just has to walk a few metres.

And it's rich pickings for the whole family.

All thanks to this very crafty trap.

CHIRPING

Duping your dinner to come to you

clearly has its advantages.

But most top predators need to actively seek out their prey

to satisfy their needs.

And that can be a real challenge,

because these prey animals have highly effective defence strategies.

But what if a predator knew what its prey's defence strategy was?

What if it used that actual strategy against that animal

when it was hunting it?

Well, there is one animal that's learned to do exactly that.

And it lives out here.

The killer whale.

This marine mammal lives in a world of sound.

WHALE VOCALISES

Because visibility is limited underwater,

killer whales use a series of sounds to communicate,

navigate, and to hunt.

And it's during a hunt where they use sound in a very sneaky way.

WHALE VOCALISES

Scientist Volker Deecke is an expert in killer whale acoustics.

And he's recorded some astonishing underwater audio.

I'm joining him in a specialist sound studio

to hear his discoveries.

WHALE CALLS

-It's beautiful.

-It's amazing, isn't it?

Yeah.

WHALE CALLS

This is a group of 50 animals tracking a whole school of herring.

Herring live in huge groups.

When threatened by predators,

their defensive strategy is to shoal tightly together.

The confusing, co-ordinated movements of the school

make it harder for predators to single out and pick off individuals.

Herring are perfect prey for killer whales.

But how are they going to catch them?

Volker has recorded something quite remarkable -

a strange sound that killer whales only make

whilst they're hunting herring.

Now listen carefully.

WHALE CLICKS

WHALE CALLS

That's amazing. So basically, there was a lot of clicking,

and then a single loud whistle.

That loud sound is what we call a herding call.

WHALE CALLS

The herding call is a very unusual sound for killer whales.

First of all, it's a relatively low frequency sound,

and the other thing is it's a very, very loud sound.

For a fish, a low frequency sound at very high volume

is extremely dangerous.

That sound can become a weapon.

WHALE CALLS

Let me explain how it works.

Look at this. Here, a glass is being exposed

to a very loud frequency of sound.

ELECTRICAL TONE

And when you crank up the volume...

something incredible happens.

TONE INTENSIFIES

You can see that glass flexing.

GLASS SMASHES

Brilliant.

But of course, we're not implying

that the whales are bursting the fish with sound.

-No.

-Perhaps just making them wobble.

We think that it's used to do something to the herring,

to change the herring's behaviour.

It seems that the gut-wrenching herding calls panic the herring

and trigger their defence tactics.

They school closely together.

Other predators couldn't handle this.

But this is exactly what the killer whales want.

They've set a trap.

With the fish in a tight ball, they have no room for manoeuvre.

The killer whales deliver devastating tail-swipes

with the force of an exploding grenade.

And then the whales feast on the stunned fish.

Sound here is being used as a deceptive weapon.

These killer whales know that by producing that frequency of sound

at that volume, they can modify the behaviour of the herring.

Effectively, they can use their own defence behaviour against them,

so the whales can feed more efficiently.

That is pretty clever.

But off the coast of Alaska, killer whales have a bigger challenge.

Here, some of their main prey are seals and sea lions,

which live along the rocky shores.

But these animals are much more intelligent than herring,

and they've got exceptional hearing.

So they can detect any calls the killer whales make

and then take evasive action.

It would seem that the seals have the upper hand.

But then...how can this happen?

Volker's latest recording has the answer.

Here we go.

Volker recorded a pod of three killer whales tracking a seal.

Now, listen carefully.

SEAL SNORTS

This is the sound of a male harbour seal -

a vocal display that it uses to attract other females.

So that's the seal. And the killer whale can hear that?

They certainly can.

The hunt is on,

and Volker's recording reveals something extraordinary.

And now I'm just going to increase the volume here.

WATER RIPPLES

-But there's no clicking.

-No clicking at all.

-And no whoops.

No. This is a group of three animals,

and they're doing all of this completely silently,

with no calls, no echolocation, nothing at all.

Because of course the seal would hear that.

-They've gone into radio silence, basically.

-Absolutely.

Mum is the word when it comes to hunting for these guys.

SILENCE

And only when they're within striking distance do they speed up.

WATER RIPPLES

And...

bam!

Hitting the seal and grabbing it.

-That was it getting...?

-That's it.

-Wow.

It's quite profound, isn't it?

You know, the dissociation, just hearing the sound of this event,

-that animal being killed.

-Mm-hm.

It's gruesome, but can we hear it again?

WATER RIPPLES

THUMP!

And that poor seal was trying to attract a female,

and instead, it attracted its predator.

So this, you see, is a form of acoustic camouflage.

The killer whales are consciously being quiet,

so that they can sneak up on their prey.

The trick to the success is not making any noise at all.

That's the clever bit.

That's the devious bit.

Across the world's oceans,

killer whales and other large marine predators

also use an artful visual ploy to help them hunt.

Take the great white shark.

They need stealth and surprise to launch an attack.

The seas are vast. Great white sharks can't simply

hang around waiting for prey to come to them.

They've got to seek that prey out, they've got to actively go hunting.

But underwater, in the open ocean, there is nowhere to hide.

So how can a creature as large as a great white shark

conceal itself whilst it's looking for that prey?

Well, it seems they've come up with a pretty crafty solution.

A shark's body colouration is entirely deliberate.

Dark on top, light underneath - it's called countershading.

Viewed from above, the dark skin of the shark's back

blends eerily into the shadowy ocean depths.

Seen from below, its pale underside

matches the lighter water near the surface.

For the illusion to really work, though,

the shark has to disappear when it's viewed from the side,

and this is where it gets really clever.

Let's put countershading to the test.

Here we have a sphere -

uniform in colour, it's white, in fact.

And over here, another sphere,

but this one is painted dark grey on top

and it's white underneath. It looks just like a shark.

In the ocean, light from the sun always falls from above.

So let's replicate that.

Immediately, a shadow forms on the uniform sphere.

In fact, it's the shadow that's cast by the top of that sphere itself.

Look at it. It stands out a mile

against that backdrop.

The other sphere is very different.

The top light falls on the grey,

and it's balanced by the shadow that forms underneath.

Now, let's be honest - it doesn't disappear,

but it becomes much more two-dimensional, much flatter.

And if I were prey and this were predator,

it would be a lot more difficult to see.

That's the secret of countershading.

And that is the secret of the shark's success.

It's a devious design

that sharks have used to hunt their prey for millennia.

And they're not the only ones.

There's countershading in penguins.

Sailfish have it.

Even humpback whales.

It's stealthy.

It's smart.

And it works.

Deceptive strategies like these

give predators the edge in a hunt.

But other animals have a very different problem.

To get the food they need to survive,

they have to compete with others of their own species.

And that's when things can get very sneaky indeed.

Autumn, and change is in the air.

This time of year is also critical,

as animals are preparing for the winter.

And one species' survival is inextricably linked to these -

conkers, sweet chestnuts, hazelnuts and acorns,

because at the moment, they're quite literally going nuts for nuts.

Meet the grey squirrel.

This little nut is packed full of energy.

Carbohydrate, fat, protein -

all in all, there's somewhere between five and ten calories in here,

which means that a cold, hungry squirrel

will need about 20 of these to get through a winter's day.

It's a very valuable commodity.

So if you come along to a park where squirrels are used to people,

you might be able to tempt them to take it out of your hand.

Come on, then. Come on.

Come on!

Come on.

HE CHUCKLES

Magic.

But that nut is not for eating today.

Squirrels will cache around 3,000 nuts in different locations

for the lean times ahead.

And incredibly, they'll remember

where up to 90% of them were buried.

There's no denying that that is remarkable.

But there's a problem, here in the park.

You see, thieves are lurking.

After all, why bother to find your own nuts and then hide them,

when you could nick someone else's?

Whilst our squirrel buries nuts essential for his survival,

he's being watched.

Nut safely stored, the squirrel departs the scene.

And the onlooker moves in for the steal.

Undeniably devious behaviour.

So is there anything that these nut-hoarding squirrels can do

to throw the thieves off of the scent?

Well, it turns out that there is,

because they've got some sneaky strategies of their own.

Grey squirrels will dig up nuts they've already buried

and then rebury them in a different place,

throwing thieves off the scent.

But I've got to tell you, it gets better,

because there is one situation where our squirrel

exhibits true deceptive genius.

And it's something that will be familiar to anyone

who's been in the audience with a street magician.

You know the score.

The ball goes into one cup.

The other two are empty.

The trick is to work out where the ball goes.

The key to fooling his audience

is timing and misdirection.

Thanks very much, ladies and gentlemen.

Just like the magician,

the grey squirrel has mastered sleight of hand,

so now it's time to see deception in action.

OK. Here's our squirrel -

nut in mouth, poised to bury.

And here is the thief.

He moves closer, for a better view.

But look!

Does our squirrel know that he's being watched?

Either way, he carries on.

From the thief's point of view,

these are the actions of a squirrel burying a nut.

But wait!

It turns out that our squirrel has been faking it!

When he spotted the thief, he opted for plan B - misdirection.

The thief has only seen what our squirrel wanted him to see.

He carried on digging,

but he didn't deposit the nut -

the ultimate sleight of hand.

Oblivious to the trick,

the thief heads towards the freshly dug hole, only to find...

a freshly dug hole.

Foiled!

And with the coast clear,

our squirrel is free to bury his nut in a new location,

known only to him.

For these squirrels, this park is a hotbed of theft and deception,

and they're pulling every trick they can out of the book

to find their nuts and then hide them.

But here is the really interesting thing.

They're not fooling another species -

they're tricking one another.

This is a case of deception and then counter-deception

evolving at the same time.

And the strategies that the hoarder and the pilferer have come up with

make these little rodents

one of THE most successful mammals on our planet.

So that is not nuts.

That's pure success.

Sleight of hand helps sneaky squirrels get one up on each other.

But there is one animal that uses devious and far darker tactics

on the most vulnerable of their own kind.

A millionaires' playground off the coast of California.

And a male sea otter is cruising the harbour.

To get his next meal, he's got a really despicable plan.

It involves a female sea otter and her pup.

The pup is just old enough to accompany her mother

on foraging trips,

giving the male an opportunity.

He picks the perfect moment.

Whilst the female is fishing,

her precious pup is all alone at the surface,

and vulnerable.

When the mother surfaces...

SHE SQUEAKS

..she hears the cries of her youngster.

SQUEAKING

CALL-AND-RESPONSE SQUEAKING

Our cunning male has kidnapped the baby.

He knows the female will come to the rescue -

and the ransom is always the same.

In an underwater exchange,

the female gives up the food she's just found to the male,

and the pup is released unharmed.

This is called "hostage behaviour", and it's surprisingly common.

A deliberate manipulation of female otters,

all to get food.

Theft is sneaky, but ultimately, it's a successful strategy.

But just how far are animals prepared to go?

Now, it's one thing for animals to deceive,

cheat and steal from one another to get themselves a decent meal,

but I've heard about something else that might be even more remarkable.

Oh, yes - they're cheating us humans.

I give you the world's ultimate cheeky monkey...

CLICKS

..the long-tailed macaque.

The Temple of Uluwatu...

..home to a remarkable troop of these monkeys.

With over 300 macaques here,

they need a lot of food.

But temple offerings and tourist scraps

just aren't enough for these monkey mobsters.

No, they've got their eyes on far more nutritious fare,

and what they're doing to get it is downright criminal.

There are plenty of monkeys about.

But to see what they're getting up to, I need to blend in.

I need to disguise myself...

as a tourist.

My camera is absolutely de rigueur.

Sunglasses.

What about this?

Everyone seems to be using these things.

Just not me, though.

Think I'll just stick to the old mobile phone.

HE SIGHS

No, going too far.

'Attention to the visitors,

'please be careful in bringing sunglasses,

'hats, jewellery and other valuables that can be taken by the monkeys.

'Thank you for your attention.'

These monkeys are expert thieves.

Here we go, here we go, here we go.

Oh, and there you go.

Brazen, audacious,

they've worked out exactly how to get what they want.

Oh, dear, oh, dear.

It's like taking candy from children, it really is.

You're a bit of a gangster, aren't you?

You fancy yourself as a bit of a...

sunglasses hit man?

Look at him, look! Here he goes. Here he goes!

I've been undercover for about an hour.

The monkeys have been stealing all sorts of stuff, flip-flops,

sunglasses... I managed to hang on to my own. People's hats.

I'm told they even nick their iPhones.

The interesting thing is, though, they're taking all of this stuff

which is valuable to us humans, but they're not taking any food.

MONKEY SCREECHES

Well, obviously I spoke too soon about MY sunglasses.

But this daylight robbery is still all about food,

just not in the way that you'd ever expect.

So, to understand what they're up to,

I am giving them an irresistible opportunity.

Oh! PEOPLE GASP

You see, these monkeys want something in return for my phone.

They're notorious for one thing...

holding people to ransom.

OK, he's got my phone.

And there is a system by which I may be able to do this - bartering.

OK, that's what it thinks of peanuts.

Let's try something a little bit more valuable to it.

Maybe a bag of bananas?

It doesn't seem particularly interested in the bananas either,

does he? The last prize that I have is this...

protein in the form of eggs.

If anything is going to get my phone back, it's this.

Yes! HE LAUGHS

Ah!

HE SIGHS WITH RELIEF

Yes, yes, yes!

This is absolutely incredible.

You see, these monkeys are stealing the valuables that they know

that we want back.

And they're using them to barter with us for food.

They won't give up their loot,

not until they're offered the specific food that they want,

often the fare with the highest nutritional value.

As negotiation and bartering are so extraordinary in the animal world,

Jean-Baptiste and his research team

are studying how this complex deception develops.

But this bartering is very, very rare. It occurs only here,

perhaps another couple of places on Earth.

Why here and nowhere else?

Well, the main hypothesis with this group is that it might have

emerged from an inventor.

-That's usually...

-One animal?

-Probably.

Probably, that's how behavioural traditions typically emerge.

It's obviously nutritionally beneficial,

they get really something out of it.

So, in this particular population, it spread.

So young monkeys here are able to learn by looking at their elders,

particularly the older males, which are the most proficient at this?

With adult males, the entire procedure becomes very fast,

very successful on both sides

and, of course, the monkey gets its favourite food and the token,

the item, is returned generally in good condition, but not always.

Not always.

Yeah, one of them, I have to say, ate my sunglasses, it chewed them up.

But that was a youngster and it took them off my head

without me even noticing.

So very adept at stealing, but then it dashed up a tree and ate them.

So it hadn't learned to barter yet.

It takes time and practice to become a good player

at this particular game, definitely.

Monkeys are intelligent creatures.

Like us, they have the ability to learn,

to adapt their feeding behaviours to get the best from any situation.

And they can outwit us in a flash...

even some of us who should know better.

Look at this one, look, look.

This one's really got something valuable this time. He's got a purse.

Oh, no. It's your purse? It's your purse?!

I didn't realise it was one of our team's purse.

How could you lose that? You know what they're up to!

They've got it, they've got it, they've got the purse.

And the money!

Look at that.

That's the price of carelessness at the Temple.

-It'll be in amongst these.

-I hope so.

When it comes to getting food,

these monkeys have got it all sewn up.

Superb. Absolutely superb.

This has to be one of the most fascinating

and complex pieces of deceitful behaviour that we've seen.

Oi!

And you know what I really like about it?

For once, these cheeky monkeys have turned the tables on us humans.

It's us that's being held to ransom.

Of course, we love their anarchic behaviour,

even, EVEN, when we're the victims ourselves.

It really is quite wonderful.

In the case of this remarkable monkey heist,

we are willing to be part of the deception.

Yet most animals wouldn't tolerate being tricked

time and time again for their food.

That's certainly a problem that animals that practise deception face,

because if they want their con to work in the long-term,

they need to control it, to regulate it, to ensure that the victim

is blissfully unaware that it's ever been had.

Sounds simple, but it's not.

It's something that is very, very difficult to do.

But there is one animal that has perfected the art.

Here in South Africa, there's an animal that uses

the most extraordinary trick that I've ever heard of

to get itself a meal.

I give you the one and the only drongo.

The ultimate hustler in the hunger games.

He's one brazen bird.

Now, it might look warm and sunny here,

but it's winter and times are tough.

The flying insects that the drongo usually eats

just aren't around in these low temperatures.

The only grubs and insects here live underground.

And other animals are far better equipped to dig them up

than our drongo.

So how is he going to get this food?

This exquisite bird has evolved a very devious strategy

to deal with just this problem.

You see, its very survival rests on a knife edge,

so it's turned to a life of crime.

And although it may not look it, the drongo here...

..is a con artist of the highest order.

In the world of the con, an elaborate hustle plays out

between the player...

..the drongo...

..and the victim of the con, the mark.

And the mark, in this case, is another species of bird,

a sociable weaver.

And they feed on the ground, using their large powerful bills

to dig up the food.

But out in the open, they are vulnerable to predators.

And that's where the drongo comes in.

So what is the drongo offering the weaver?

It's offering it something that is the singularly most important

thing for a small bird like this...

protection.

When trouble looms, the drongo lets the weavers know about it.

DRONGO CALLS

..with an alarm call.

When the danger is gone...

DRONGO WHISTLES

..he gives them an all-clear call.

It looks to me as if the first stage of the con has been established,

in the sense that they are clearly trusting the drongo's call.

So far, so good.

But now let's see how this hustle actually plays out.

With the drongo on lookout duty, the weavers spend less time

worrying about predators and more time foraging...

..digging up that vital food.

DRONGO CALLS

The drongo's alarm call...

and that means danger.

But all is not what it seems.

The alarm call was, in fact, a fake.

There is no predator.

DRONGO CALLS

And with the weavers gone, the drongo eats all the food they just dug up.

And then he gives the all-clear call.

DRONGO WHISTLES

Within minutes,

the drongo is back on duty and the weavers are none the wiser.

Now, he's got to keep his side of the bargain.

He's got to protect them from real predators...

..or they'll get wise to his protection racket.

But, in fact, the drongos' con gets much more sophisticated than this.

The drongos' con routine is actually so effective that they've learned

to employ it upon many other species of animal, including these guys...

..meerkats.

They're much smarter than the weavers,

so the drongo needs to raise his game.

Meerkats have their own lookout.

It's one that they entrust with their lives.

Yet, if there are predators about,

a second pair of eyes is always very useful.

And the drongo can exploit this.

That food has caught his eye.

DRONGO CALLS

He makes a fake alarm call.

It should send them running...

MEERKAT BARKS

But no, the meerkats aren't fooled that easily.

He needs another plan.

And what the drongo does now is really sneaky.

BARKING

From out of the blue, it's the sound of a meerkat alarm call.

But that was no meerkat.

DRONGO MIMICS A MEERKAT

BARKING

No, that was our drongo.

The sneaky devil has switched tactics

and, by mimicking the meerkats' own alarm call,

he tricks them completely

and gets all the food for himself.

The drongo is the ultimate con artist.

Depending on the situation,

he decides which of his repertoire of fake calls to use.

And this means his targets never get wise to his tricks.

When it comes to finding food,

this little bird has pulled off the most phenomenal con,

to the extent that, if it thinks for just a moment that the mark is going

to figure out the trick, it changes it to guarantee success.

That, you've got to admit, is remarkable

and surely makes this one of the most devious animals on our planet.

And I, for one, have developed a real admiration for the drongo.

What a bird...what a bird!

So, we've met the extraordinary animals that will lie,

cheat and steal their way to their next meal...

..sneaky strategies that ensure that they'll live to see another day.

Next time, sex and lies in the mating game.

We meet the animals tricking others to win a mate

and then raise their young,

the seductive sneaks, the cheats, the love rats.

These animals definitely don't play by the rules.