You start painting pictures of squirrels twirling their mustaches’: A biologist on whether animals can lie

Biologist James O’Hanlon tackles tactical deception and whether animals can truly lie in his 2026 book Liars, Cheats and Copycats, mapping a vast spectrum from unconscious camouflage to calculated social manipulation.

Published by Columbia University Press in 2026, explores tactical deception aimed squarely at manipulating what another animal believes.

The Fine Line Between Evolution and Intent

Most deception in the natural world happens without any awareness from the creature involved, according to Livescience. A moth evolves to look like a hornet. Orchid mantises mimic flowers to lure in pollinators.

Yet scientists are paid to be pedantic. Questions around animal lying usually yield a yes, but or a possibly response. Researchers can never know for certain what goes on inside an animal’s brain. Even so, many behaviors strongly mimic lying.

Alarm Calls and Cuttlefish Chameleons

Golden snub-nosed monkeys use deceptive alarm calls to scare off other members of their group and steal their food. Eventually, other group members learn to ignore the calls when the trick becomes too frequent. This dynamic suggests that animal societies may develop their own rules to keep lying in check.

You start painting pictures of squirrels twirling their mustaches’: A biologist on whether animals can lie

Similarly, the drongo bird is renowned for its ability to deceive meerkats by cycling through different alarm calls and borrowing calls from other bird species.

In another striking case, researchers studying cuttlefish observed the invertebrates changing one side of their body to look like a male and the other to look like a female. Initial resistance from scientists arose simply because cuttlefish are little invertebrates. Yet the evidence shows it is no different from strategies seen in large-brained mammals.

Consciousness and Social Pressures

Distinguishing between camouflage like a tiger’s stripes and tactical deception comes down to intent and choice. Tiger stripes work whether the animal is aware of them or not. Tactical deception relies on some form of choice to work. This raises difficult questions about consciousness and whether animals make deliberate decisions.