Manipulative Animals: How Some Species Use Blackmail

Evidence suggests that some animals blackmail others in the family to help rear their young, even though others may not be thrilled about it.

A recent study shows that there are devious animals that trick their relatives into believing that individual would threaten their survival or reproductive success if relatives didn't watch their kin.

The reason for the deception lies in the need to get as many copies of DNA as possible into the gene pool. This, in turn, reassures the success of the species and the succeeding offsprings.

Blackmail in the Animal Kingdom

Relatives often cave and pitch in on the survival of the offspring due to their own survival depends on the success of the offsprings.

Patrick Kennedy, the lead author tells SYFY WIRE, "You need leverage, opportunity, a targeted risk, and a meaningful benefit."

The study published in the Chicago Journals, states that blackmail in the animal kingdom isn't as vengeful as humans'. The need to blackmail stems from the need to survive. Despite not intending to blackmail other family members, it often gets the same result from their desperate behavior.

There are times when animals are willing to risk their lives for their offspring and the overall survival of the species, and that is where relatives are forced to intervene.

Dr. Kennedy says, "We explored a devious form of manipulation. An individual can threaten to harm its own survival or reproductive success if relatives withhold help."

While Andy Radford, co-author, and professor of Behavioral Ecology explains, "We considered an overlooked aspect of Hamilton's rule. Animals might increase their value to kin by acting in a way that puts shared genes in jeopardy if relatives fail to help."

In a Darwinian sense, relatives are vehicles for shared genes. Whether evolution depends on simple cost-benefit calculations known as Hamilton's rule -- help if it leads to an increase of your genes in the population.

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Evolution of Blackmail

The exact factors that influence the evolution of blackmail in the animal kingdom need further investigation. Experts theorize that blackmailing might have been influenced by environmental factors such as the availability of food.

Individuals that survive will continue the behavior and pass the traits onto their offsprings.

The theory of inclusive fitness published in 2011, sheds some light on why certain creatures are willing to go to the extremes to get the cooperation of the flock, colony, or pack when it comes to rearing newborns or hatchlings.

Kennedy states that biologists should be wary of the possibility of hidden consequences and threats of self-sabotage between animals. Some species to keep a lookout for are nests of cooperatively breeding birds and associations of foundress females in eusocial wasps.

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