Sonia and the Oxpeckers

by Janis Connell

Title

Sonia and the Oxpeckers

Artist

Janis Connell

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

Here's Sonia again from Lewa Conservancy. Can you count how many birds are on her in this pic? Those are oxpeckers, specifically the red-billed oxpecker (vs. the yellow-billed). Oxpeckers and rhinos (as well as other big game) have a complex relationship. In the past, it was believed that these creatures had a form of symbiotic relationship called mutualism, in which two or more organisms live of function together to benefit each other. The rhinos have ticks, the oxpecker eats the ticks off the rhinos (oxpeckers like the blood). Also, rhinos have poor eyesight and hearing, so the oxpeckers act as a secondary warning system to their larger hosts by chirping and hissing loudly when danger appears.
All that sounds mutually beneficial to me. But, nothing is ever that simple is it??? The oxpeckers pick the hosts with the largest number of ticks with little regard to how thick their hosts's hide is. While it is true that oxpeckers eat ticks, they also take blood from sores of their hosts. Oxpeckers have been observed to open new wounds and enhance existing ones in order to drink the blood of their perches. Ewwwww! The birds also use their host's hair for nesting material and feed on the earwax and dandruff of the mammals.
Elephants and some antelope will actively dislodge the oxpeckers when they land. Other species tolerate oxpeckers while they search for ticks on the face, which one author says "appears ... to be an uncomfortable and invasive process.
So, what do you think? Is the oxpecker friend or foe to the rhino? or frenemy?? And how many did you count on Sonia?

Uploaded

November 19th, 2019

Statistics

Viewed 133 Times  -  Last Visitor from New York, NY on 03/01/2024 at 5:12 PM

Colors

Embed

Share

Sales Sheet

Tags