desert drongo
by Douglas J. Lanzo
mimicking meerkat sentries
to draw them off guard
Fork-tailed desert drongo first win the trust of meerkats by sounding an alarm when a threatening hawk circles above their burrows. Having won their trust, a wily drongo then betrays it by sounding a false alarm. This sends meerkats into a tailspin, inducing them to flee to their burrows. In the process , the duped meerkats abandon captured insects, lizards and scorpions, leaving the tasty critters behind for grateful drongo to claim.
Once the meerkats catch onto this trick, fork-tailed drongo elevate their deception to the next level. From their desert perches, they imitate the warning bark or high-pitched squeal of the meerkat sentry itself, sending the clan into a panic. The burrowing meerkats leave behind insects, scorpions and lizards for the breakfasting drongo, who swiftly swoop down from trees and shrubs to retrieve the coveted prey.
Further reading:
To learn more about this fascinating opportunistic behavior, called kleptoparasitism, check out the BBC series Wild Africa to witness these amazing interactions among Kalahari desert meerkats and fork-tailed drongo, available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEYCjJqr21A
‘Forktailed drongo’, Wikipedia article, available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork-tailed_drongo
‘Kleptoparasitism’, Wikipedia article, available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleptoparasitism.
Author bio:
Doug is an award-winning American author and poet of over 530 internationally published poems whose debut novel The Year of the Bear won the Ames Award for YA Books and whose second book I Have Lived was named American Book Fest Novella of the Year. His Author’s website is www.douglaslanzo.com.