![]() ![]() Main article: Trochilus (crocodile bird) Herodotus asserted that the trochilus bird, possibly a sandpiper, was able to enter the mouth of the Nile crocodile in what would now be called a cleaning symbiosis. Mutual resemblance among cleaner fish is analogous to Müllerian mimicry, as where stinging bees and wasps mimic each other. Some genuine cleaner fish, such as gobies and wrasse, have the same colours and patterns, in an example of convergent evolution. Predatory cheating is analogous to Batesian mimicry, as where a harmless hoverfly mimics a stinging wasp, though with the tables turned. Others again believe that cleaning behaviour is simply one-sided exploitation, a form of parasitism.Ĭheating, where either a cleaner sometimes harms its client, or a predatory species mimics a cleaner, also occurs. Others such as Robert Trivers hold that it illustrates mutual selfishness, reciprocal altruism. Some believe that cleaning represents selfless co-operation, essentially pure mutualism, increasing the fitness of both individuals. The role of cleaning symbioses has been debated by biologists for over thirty years. Other cleaning symbioses exist between birds and mammals, and in other groups.Ĭleaning behaviour was first described by the Greek historian Herodotus in about 420 BCE, though his example (birds serving crocodiles) appears to occur only rarely. Cleaning symbiosis is well-known among marine fish, where some small species of cleaner fish, notably wrasses but also species in other genera, are specialised to feed almost exclusively by cleaning larger fish and other marine animals. And the more lookouts, the better in what seems like a win-win for both species: the birds thrive and the rhinos survive.Giant moray eel being cleaned by a bluestreak cleaner wrasseĬleaning symbiosis is a mutually beneficial association between individuals of two species, where one (the cleaner) removes and eats parasites and other materials from the surface of the other (the client). Plotz thinks the oxpeckers may have evolved their sentinel behavior because it protects their convenient food source. The study is in the journal Current Biology, with oxpecker recording by Tiffany Plantan of the University of Miami. There's a really strong antihuman benefit to listening to oxpecker alarm calls.” ![]() What we think is going on, fundamentally, is that the rhino is eavesdropping on the oxpecker alarm call, there can be no doubt of that. “Which makes sense because the more eyes you have on your back, looking out for you, the more chance that they can pick up anything coming. And the more oxpeckers on the scene, the greater the detection distance-which means the earlier the warning. And they detected the human 61 meters away on average. ![]() But when oxpeckers were present, the birds alerted the rhinos 100 percent of the time. The researchers found that rhinos without oxpeckers detected an approaching human only 23 percent of the time, at an average distance of 27 meters. “And approach them undetected, when the oxpeckers were on the back and when the oxpeckers were not on their backs, to get an idea of if the birds do alert them and if the rhinos do listen.” This didn’t hurt the rhinos and allowed the researchers to track the animals. To test whether the oxpeckers do, in fact, act as noisy lookouts, Plotz and his team implanted radio transmitters in the rhinos’ horns. “And it’s sort of a distinctive rattling, a bit hissing sort of sound.” Plotz suspected that the rhinos put up with this indignity because the oxpeckers make loud alarm calls whenever they see humans approach-giving the rhinos an early warning to flee. The birds also get nutrients by picking at sores on the rhinos’ bodies. And if they feed on ticks, that is a good thing.” “And actually, research has shown that the tick is the favorite diet of an oxpecker. The chatty, sociable birds often hang out on the backs of rhinos, feasting on parasitic ticks. But the rhinos may have an unlikely ally against poachers: the red-billed oxpecker. Today the species is critically endangered largely due to poaching. But those protective traits are no match for humans with guns. Victoria University of Melbourne behavioral ecologist Roan Plotz. “Their basic body plan has proved to be good enough to survive on a savanna full of large predators, being very large, thick-skinned-big, rapierlike horns.” Even so, these giant African herbivores easily fend off hungry lions and hyenas. ![]()
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