Coral Snake

The coral snake is the honest broker of the animal kingdom — its bright red-yellow-black banding is a genuine warning backed by one of the most potent neurotoxins in the Western Hemisphere. Unlike species that bluff, the coral snake's signal is costly to produce and impossible to fake without the biochemistry to match. This makes it the textbook model for costly signaling theory: the signal works precisely because it's expensive. The milk snake and scarlet kingsnake borrow this credibility through Batesian mimicry — harmless species wearing a dangerous species' uniform. In business, this is the difference between a company that builds genuine reliability (Stripe's 99.999% uptime) and one that merely copies the branding of competence. The coral snake's aposematic coloration persists because cheaters remain rare enough that predators can't afford to test the signal. When mimics become too common, the signal degrades — the same dynamic that erodes trust in premium branding when counterfeits flood a market.