Aggressive Mimicry
The zone-tailed hawk flies among turkey vultures because prey has learned vultures don't attack. The hawk exploits that trust to get close before striking. In 2024, impersonation scams cost consumers $2.95 billion by mimicking trusted entities - and deepfakes now need only 3 seconds of audio to clone a voice at 85% accuracy.
Some predators mimic harmless species to approach prey. The zone-tailed hawk has coloration and flight pattern mimicking turkey vultures (which are non-threatening scavengers). Small mammals don't flee from turkey vultures, so they don't flee from zone-tailed hawks - until it's too late.
Business Application of Aggressive Mimicry
Aggressive mimicry in business involves predatory companies mimicking trusted signals to exploit customers or partners - effective only while rare enough to avoid detection.