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 fish 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 ants also sometimes help the caterpillar while it is maturing into a moth or a butterfly.
In this symbiotic relationship, the tiny plover bird helps by cleaning the teeth of the crocodile. This prevents oral infections in the crocodile and provides food for the plover bird as it gets to eat the food remnants stuck in the crocodile's teeth.
Gelada monkeys move in high numbers. However, wolves are very rare due to their endangered status. The survival of the wolves depends on the strange and unlikely pact they have 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 the monkeys go to the cave to sleep in a cove, they push out the easy prey, the small rodents. The wolves, being around the Gelada and not touching their hosts' babies, gain a benefit by feeding on the pushed-out rodents. As the rodents are competitors for the monkeys' food sources, the monkeys also gain 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 an excellent sense of smell but 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 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 uses its digging prowess to burrow, and the coyote uses 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. However, they are not the only insects to use this trick, and oftentimes, 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 the startling jet of water and the loud sound made by the rapid opening and closing of their claws. This behavior is typical of scaring and confusing predators. However, they live in areas with little to no cover from predators. As gobies have bad eyesight - in some cases, almost blind - they require the 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 the insects and ticks on its body.
This may seem perfect as the tick bird gains food to eat and the giraffe gets rid of the insects. However, the tick bird sometimes bites the giraffe's skin too deeply, causing sores and wounds. This exposes the giraffe to further insects and parasites.