Published on
26/07/2026 - 21:07 GMT+2
Humans are not the only mammals capable of deceiving their own kind. That is the conclusion of this study focusing on brown bears in the Cantabrian Mountains, carried out with the collaboration of experts from CSIC, FAPAS, several Spanish and European universities and the Principality of Asturias.
The paper published in the "Journal of Mammalogy" (source in Spanish) argues that a minority of bears spread across the peaks of León, Asturias and Cantabria may be 'lying' about their true size to avoid facing larger rivals. How? Through the signals and marks these mammals leave in their surroundings to stake out territory.
Seven males (4.3% of the 164 tracked) made markings unusually high by climbing or using tree trunks or other kinds of platforms to leave their trace at a height greater than their real size would allow. Of these, 57.1% were adults and 42.9% were young bears. "These results suggest that brown bears can manipulate index signals that were previously considered impossible to fake, which adds complexity to their communication system," the authors sum up.
