Definition of “Aggressive Mimicry”
This is a term used when predators make signals that indirectly manipulate the behavior of their prey. Aggressive mimicry can be thought of as being a type of communication, as it involves two individuals (i.e., a sender and a receiver) and a signal, but in this instance the sender does not communicate to share information with the receiver in a reciprocal way. Instead, the sender uses specific signals to play mind games with the receiver, with the response elicited being detrimental to the receiver but beneficial to the sender. This type of communication is manipulative in an indirect way because, instead of being based on the sender physically forcing the receiver to do something in particular, it is based on assisting the sender with gaining indirect control of the receiver’s behavior (Jackson and Cross 2013).
Mimicking Potential Prey
One of the most well-known examples of a predator indirectly manipulating the behavior of its prey comes from...
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Cross, F.R. (2018). Aggressive Mimicry. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_113-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_113-1
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