65: Deceptive Animals with Lixing Sun

Scamapalooza with Nicholas J. Johnson

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I busted my cat scratching the couch yesterday. As soon as she caught my eye, she stopped scratching and started to stretch instead, acting as if she’d hadn't just been digging her claws into our brand new four seater.
The question is, did she KNOW she was trying to deceive me?
Or did it just look like that through my human eyes?
Lixing Sun is the man with the answers. A professor of biology at Central Washington University and the author of The Liars of Nature and The Nature of Liars, Lixing's work explores how and why animals deceive.
On this episode of the podcast, we talk about why the Navy painted zebra stripes on their ships during world war 2, why a duck would want to see on Volleyball and how cuckoos and warblers negotiate peace in an egg switching arm race.
Lixing's Book: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691198606/the-liars-of-nature-and-the-nature-of-liars
My Site: www.njjohnson.com.au