Top 10 Unlikely Partnerships Between Animals that Actually Exist
These animals show how to survive under dire circumstances with the help of others
I'm sure we've seen this in a certain film, but such a symbiotic relationship is actually quite effective and unlikely in theory at the same time. The clown fish is immune to the anemone's stinging tentacles. It keeps the anemone's tentacles clean and is in turn protected from predators.
Tiny pilot fish swim into sharks' mouths and nibble away any rotting food caught between the sharks' teeth. Sharks rarely eat these swimming toothpick fishes and instead help them by scaring off would-be predators
Some Australian Caterpillars have special glands that produce a honey-like liquid that ants like to drink. In return, the ants protect the defenseless caterpillar from parasites. The ant also sometimes helps the caterpillar while maturing into a moth or a butterfly.
In this symbiotic relationship, the tiny Plover bird helps by cleaning the teeth of the crocodile, which helps the crocodile by preventing oral infections, and helps the tiny Plover bird as it gets to eat the food remnants stuck in the crocodile's teeth.
Gelada monkeys move in high numbers. However, the wolves are very rare due to their endangered status. The survival of the wolves depends on the strange and unlikely pact that is made with the Gelada monkeys. The wolves feed on smaller mammals, particularly rodents. While a fully grown gelada is a very big meal for the wolves, a baby monkey is the perfect size. But when a wolf walks into a monkey herd, the monkeys remain calm, and the wolves do not attempt to eat the baby Gelada monkeys. When monkeys went to the cave to sleep in a cove they would push out the easy prey, the small rodents.
The wolves being around the Gelada and not touching their hosts babies gain a benefit to feed on pushed out rodents. As the rodents are competitors for monkeys' food sources, monkeys also have an advantage.
Both these animals are prey to faster animals around them. Therefore, they need to maintain a high degree of alertness and awareness in the wild. Zebras have excellent eyesight, but their sense of smell is weak. Ostriches have excellent sense of smell, buf have poor eyesight. So the two smart species hang out together, relying on the eyes of the zebra and the noses of the ostriches to keep predators at bay.
These two wild dogs are usually found in grasslands with both tall and short grass. They form a partnership in order to effectively find and kill their prey. The badger's unrivaled ability as a digger and the coyote's keen sense of smell are viewed as ready-made for the partnership.
The badger will use its digging prowess to burrow, and the coyote will use its velocity to trap small mammals in dens and scare prey towards the waiting animal partner. If the prey is underground, the badger takes over the hunt, and if it is above the surface the coyote hunts the animal. Thus, their prey is obtained
The Carrion beetle thrives by eating dead animals, and also lays its eggs in those regions, so that the larvae can consume the meat as they grow, but they are not the only insects to use this trick, and often times, faster-developing larvae will eat their rivals to reduce competition.
Enter the mites. When carrion beetles travel to their next meal, they carry mites on their backs - giving them a free ride and access to food. In exchange, the mites swarm the dead meat upon arrival, eating any eggs or larvae that don't belong to carrion beetles. Competition is reduced and they earn their next free ride.
In the goby and pistol shrimp symbiosis, both animals benefit. The goby fish offers the shrimp protection from predators and the shrimp builds and maintains a burrow that both animals live in. Pistol shrimps are named for startling jet of water and the loud sound that makes with a rapid opening and closing of the claw. That is a behavior typical of scaring and confusing predators. However, they live in the areas with little to no cover from predators. As goby has bad eyesight �" in some cases almost blind, requires pistol shrimp to solicit the help of certain gobies.
The tick bird is known to eat insects and parasites such as ticks. Since the giraffe is quite large, it is often unable to clean itself and relies on the tick birds to eat off the insects and ticks in its body. This may seem perfect as the tick bird gains food to eat and the giraffe is getting rid of the insects in its body, but the tick bird also sometimes bites the giraffe's skin too deep causing sores and wounds in the giraffe's body, thereby exposing the giraffe to further insects and parasites.