Black Rhino & Oxpeckers; A cleaning service
These birds spend their daylight hours picking and consuming parasites out of the pelage of their hosts in a win-win relationship known as mutualistic symbiosis. Both species involved gain several advantages from their relationship.
Herbivores benefit greatly by having their bodies cleaned from parasitic, bloodsucking invertebrates. Blood loss due to parasites results in a loss of energy for the animal and puts it at a disadvantage when it comes to avoiding predators, mating fitness or general a day to day activities.
The Oxpeckers also benefit their mammalian hosts by affording them an early warning system. Birds are usually more vigilant than most big animals and when startled they fly up noisily, hissing and rasping characteristically.
Oxpeckers usually stay clear of primates and carnivores for obvious reasons. The also do not occur on elephants, probably because elephants will not tolerate them, using their tail, trunk or ears to chase them away. In any case, elephants do not support many ecto-parasites , possibly because they lack sebaceous glands that produce sebum, known to attract ticks in particular.
