Another two animals that team up to compensate for their own weaknesses are the zebra and the ostrich. These two animals often travel together. This is no surprise since they are a perfect match, While the giant, flightless ostrich has poor senses of both smell and hearing, the zebra has acute sense of smell and hearing. On the other hand, the zebra has terrible eyesight, while the ostrich has excellent eyesight, enhanced by its seven-foot-long neck which enables the ostrich to see far into the distance. In this way, each makes up for the other’s deficiencies as a result, the animals are far safer together then they would be apart. Ostriches can see predators, such as lions, from far in the distance while zebras can smell or hear others as they approach.
Birds and land animals aren’t the only ones that work in symbiotic pairs. Some sea animals like the clownfish and the sea anemone, do as well, sea anemones, which look like plants, are actually dangerous animals with poisonous tentacles. Most fish stay away from anemones to avoid being stung. However, the clownfish makes its home among the sea anemones. It does not get stung because its body is protected by a special coating. Living among the deadly tentacles of an anemone has a clear advantage-most predators stay away. Another benefit for the clownfish is that it is able to eat the anemone’s tentacles to safety; if the predator follows the anemone has the chance to sting and eat it. Other services the clownfish perform are cleaning up food scraps and dead anemone tentacles, and chasing away fish that might eat the anemone.
While many symbiotic pairs may at first look like odd partners, the benefits they provide one another are invaluable, and may make the difference between life and death. In fact, it is often these animals very difference that make them perfect partners.