AT the beginning of April many people may indulge in, or at least keep a wary eye out for, people playing tricks on them.

While in our human environment it is either harmless fun or irritating, depending on your point of view, in the animal world trickery is much more of a life or death affair.

Many animals use trickery as a defence against predators.

By simply mimicking the appearance of a dangerous animal, it is often possible to put a would-be predator off.

This is a policy adopted by many animals, including many living near us in the Wyre Forest.

Most of the animal tricksters we are likely to come across are insects, and many of these have chosen to make themselves look like wasps.

The wasp is a particularly good creature to mimic, as even humans think twice before meddling with one.

Probably the most common wasp mimic we can come across is the hoverfly. This is frequently seen in gardens, hovering seemingly effortlessly.

The yellow and black marking on the abdomen is just enough to make you think twice before attempting to tackle the creature.

Out on the nature reserves another excellent wasp mimic is the aptly-named wasp beetle, whose striking markings make it look like a wasp. A lot rarer, but bearing an almost uncanny resemblance to a wasp, is the clear wing moth. I am not actually sure whether they are rare, or if their mimicry is just so good that on many occasions we just pass them by.

These are just a few examples of insects which mimic wasps, but not of all the insects in the Wyre Forest have chosen wasps to impersonate.

One of these, the elephant hawk moth, has to be my favourite mimic.

Its name suggests that this rather large moth may resemble an elephant in some strange way, and this is partly true.

The adult moth is probably as different to an elephant as you can get, as it is a normal moth shape and shocking pink in colour. However, the moth's caterpillar is similar to wrinkly grey elephant's skin, and even has what looks like a small trunk on its rear, so you can see the resemblance.

Of course, it would be a pretty stupid predator which mistakes a three-inch long caterpillar for a two ton elephant, but the elephant hawk moth's mimicry is not based on its superficial resemblance to an elephant. With its addition of large eye-spots on its sides, it pretends to pass itself off as a snake.

At first glance, these can be quite convincing.