Male Topi Antelopes Alarm Snort Deceptively to Retain Females for Mating

Despite intense interest in the role of deception in animal communication, empirical evidence is wanting that nonhuman animals are capable of actively falsifying signals to manipulate mates for reproductive benefits. Tactical use of false positive signals has thus been documented mainly where interests are consistently opposed, such as between predator and prey and between competitors for food and for mates. Here we report that male topi antelopes alarm snort deceptively to retain receptive females in their territories and thereby secure mating opportunities. The finding reveals that sexual conflict over mating, which is known to promote various forms of coercion and sensory bias exploitation, can also lead to active signal falsification. However, because honesty in sexual signals is generally assured by physical or cost-enforced constraints on signal production, sexually selected mate deception is likely to target mainly signals, such as alarm calls, that were originally not under sexual selection.