Rainforest Researchers - Margays Can Imitate Calls Of Baby Monkeys To Lure Adults

[hatrack]

It sounds like something out of a fairy-tale: the big bad predator lures its gullible prey by mimicking a loved one: 'why grandma, what big teeth you have!' But in this case it's the shocking strategy of one little-known jungle feline.

In 2005 researchers with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) were watching a group of eight pied tamarins ( Saguinus bicolor), squirrel-sized monkeys, feeding on a ficus tree in the Reserva Florestal Adolpho Ducke in Brazil. They then heard the sound of tamarin babies, but were surprised to see that the sound was not coming from young tamarins, but a hungry margay (Leopardus wiedii), a small cat native to Central and South America, which was hidden from the tamarins.

Attracted to the margay's mimicry, the on-guard tamarin climbed down to investigate the sounds rather than run-away. Four other of the tamarins followed. The margay then moved toward the small monkeys. The tamarins saw the margay before it could get close enough for an attack and escaped, this time, with their lives.

Despite the margay's failure in this instance, the researchers write in Neotropical Primates: "we suggest that this strategy is very effective in attracting prey, facilitating the attack and reducing energy expenditure during a possible pursuit." While there have been reports of other American cat species, such as pumas and jaguars, mimicking prey sounds in order to draw them close, this is the first time that researchers have confirmed a feline species in the Americas uses mimicry to draw its victims near.

EDIT

http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0709-hance_margay.html