COLUMBUS, Ohio Scientists have caught male topi antelopes in the
act of faking fear in front of females in heat as a way to
improve their chances of having sex. The male antelopes,
observed in southwest Kenya, send a false signal that a predator
is nearby only when females in heat are in their territories.
When the females react to the signal, they remain in the
territory long enough for some males to fit in a quick mating
opportunity. The signal in this case, an alarm snort, is not a
warning to other antelopes to beware, but instead tells a
predator that it has been seen and lost its element of surprise,
the researchers found. So when the scientists observed the
animals misusing the snort in the presence of sexually receptive
females, they knew they were witnessing the practice of
intentional deception a trait typically attributed only to
humans and a select few other animal species. "There is very
little evidence that animals use deception, and to make that
link that the deception is intentional is very dif