Yet surprisingly, the plover does hop inside. Perhaps even more amazingly the crocodile, normally known for its aggression, does not snap its mouth shut and have the plover for snack. Instead, it remains still, not closing its mouth until the plover leaves. How can this strange behavior be explained? The answer is symbiosis. The plover picks out all the small, harmful animals attached to the croc’s teeth. In doing so, it cleans the crocodile’s teeth, which prevents the croc from getting infections. Because the crocodile can not clean its own teeth, it depends on the plover to perform this service. In return, the crocodile provides an easy meal for the plover.
In some cases of symbiosis, like the crocodile and the plover, each animal in the pair benefits from their relationship in a different way. However, in other cases, the animals share a common goal. This is true of the honeyguide bird and the ratel, a furry creature with short legs and long claws. Both these animals live on grasslands in Africa and have an appetite for honey. As its name suggests, the honeyguide has a special ability for locating beehives. However, this small bird cannot open a beehive to get at the honey. To accomplish this, it teams up with the ratel. Ratels are a perfect match to the honeyguide as they love honey, are large enough to crack open a hive, but have no ability to find hives themselves. Thehoneyguide flies over grasslands looking for a hive. When it does spot a hive, it swoops down and makes a noise to alert the ratel. The ratel uses its claws to tear open the hive. After eating its fill, the ratel invites the honeyguide to finish the leftovers.
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 senses 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 than 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 leftover bits of food. But what is the advantage to the anemone? There are several. First, the brightly colored clownfish attracts predators. When the clownfish swims under the anemone’s tentacles to safety, if the predator follows, the anemone has the chance to sting and eat it. Other services the clownfish performs 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 differences that make them perfect partners.