I'm assuming, because survival is a fear-based modality, that prey tend to lean towards flight rather than offensive moves.

But are there prey who go searching for predators, who in response, feign injury to lure them in -- aside from humans?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 28 points 5 days ago (1 child)

Yes, it can be considered part of aggressive mimicry.

Most examples are pretending to be another animal that is prey but the assassin bug example is interesting...

S. bituberus approaches the web and then uses its forelimbs to pluck the silk to attract the spider towards them, until they are close enough to strike (Wignall and Taylor, 2010). The experiments carried out by Wignall and Taylor (2010) show that S. bituberus does not mimic the full range of prey vibrations but instead is a general mimic, able to replicate a set of vibration queues that sit within the range of vibrations that a spider identifies as a prey.

https://zoologynotes.wordpress.com/2018/04/13/sticky-traps-stealth-and-aggressive-mimicry-assassin-bugs-worthy-of-the-name-part-1/

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments