This film explores this interesting question and comes up with some fascinating evidence to suggest that indeed, cheating is rife in the natural world. Rather than doing their own fishing, Whistling kites steal the catches of Sea eagles and Brahminy kites on the wing in spectacular aerial combats. A spider called Portia pretends to be a struggling fly caught in another s web, luring the resident spider to its death. Cosmophasis spiders blend into the ranks of fierce Green tree-ant battalions, and when the ants aren t looking, promptly devour their young. Cheating by creatures of different species is not unusual in the wild, but the less well known and perhaps more surprising examples are found in interactions between animals of the same kind.
Birds come under the spotlight also.
Male Satin bowerbirds build and decorate spectacular bowers to impress the females, but spend just as much energy stealing and tearing each other s love nests to shreds. Generally, sex seems to bring out the worst in animals. Cattle egret couples build nests together, raise chicks together and generally show all the trappings of monogamy, but in fact constantly keep a lookout for a little on the side . Transvestite-like Cotesia wasps mate with a female, then make like a female, letting other males mount them while the real female slips quietly away. Even that most sacred of relationships, that between family members, is not safe.