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Note I said “without hostile intentions”.

I understand it is hard to imagine alien civilizations that have no interest in eliminating others, but they are “alien”, and if they have serious high tech they could (among other things) simulate the natives so they could infiltrate at will without giving away their presence.

Terence McKenna has some fascinating “scenarios” that he discusses.

The best disguise would be as a non-intelligent species that could monitor activity and report periodically (simulating natural phenomenon for communication).

Sun Tzu (The Art of War) is full of ideas on how to carry out a long term strategy (that could really be used for peaceful or warlike purposes).

One final thought—are we really worried about dolphins or apes developing into dangerous enemies? If so, why would highly advanced aliens have such fears about us?

We know dolphins and apes. To an outside civilization we are alien and there fore a threat. Moreover, we are competitors for the finite resource a civilization needs to survive, we could have a technological breakthrough at any given moment that would advance us beyond some other civilization and making them prey.

Advanced aliens need to ensure their survival; eliminating competition is a way to do that while communication is not.

The thing about aliens is they are alien.