In his new series on Africa, the first episode of which was
broadcast tonight on BBC1, David Attenborough recounted a case which I think
qualifies as corruption in the animal kingdom.
In the Kalahari desert, the Drongo bird has come to occupy a position vis
a vis the meerkat community which, if not exactly a ‘public office’, at least
qualifies as entrusted power. The drongo
emits a call when an eagle circles overhead, warning that meerkats that they
are in danger. But the drongo has
learned to fake danger, sounding the alarm when there is no eagle in sight so
as to send the meerkats running and meanwhile swoop in and steal their abandoned
prey (tasty caterpillars and crunchy scorpions). Indeed, the drongo has even learned to fake
the alarm call of the meerkat sentries, giving added credibility to its
warnings. This means that the drongo is
abusing its position of trust with the meerkat community, in order to benefit
itself.
Two other interesting points for anti-corruption policies though. Attenborough tells us that the drongo only
cheats – or in my terms, acts corruptly – when times are hard and it really
needs the food. This is reminiscent of
the much-heard argument that petty corruption on the part of public officials
may come as a necessary response to their own poverty. What’s more, it highlights the way that
parties can sometimes live with a certain amount of corruption because the
corrupt official provides some form of protection which is, on balance or in
the long term, desirable. Patron-client
relations often work like this and seem like they might provide a good model
for this aspect of the drongo-meerkat relationship.
Comments - especially from zoologists - most welcome!
