The cuckoo is one animal that thrives through trickery and deception, but there are many others in the natural world.
Some species will stop at nothing to save their skin, find a feed or get a mate; for example vine leaves that mimic tree leaves to avoid predators, caterpillars with a snake's head, and spiders that produce smells to lure in their prey!
Martin Stevens studies animal deception at the University of Exeter and writes about it in his book Cheats and Deceits: How animals and plants exploit and mislead (Oxford University Press).
