Mice 'are masters of deception', new study finds - as dynamic in Tom and Jerry cartoon may be more accurate than expected

Even if decades have passed since you watched an episode of Tom and Jerry, you will probably recall that mice are elusive creatures.

Now experts may have discovered why - a study shows that they are masters of tactical deception.

Researchers placed test chambers with a single entrance near a forest outside Warsaw, where they observed the social interactions between wild black-striped and yellow-necked mice.

Over seven months, they recorded 21 instances where a mouse used deception to outwit their rival.

In the most obvious cases, a black-striped mouse would run into the chamber while being pursued by a yellow-necked mouse.

The black-striped mouse would quickly turn and ‘hide’ just inside the entrance until its rival entered the chamber, before fleeing back out before the yellow-necked mouse turned around.

The team, led by researchers at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, said this is the first evidence of intentional tactical deception in mice.

The study, titled ‘Catch me if you can’, was published in the Royal Society Open Science journal.

It reads: ‘This newly documented defensive behaviour of black-striped mice can be classified as pursuer evasion, since the evading mouse actively escapes an approaching mouse in order to avoid physical contact and a possible fight.

‘It appears that, since black-striped mice cannot overcome yellow-necked mice with strength, they instead employ tactics and deception to outperform their opponents avoiding a physical confrontation.’