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Project Noah Nature School
Buphagus erythrorhynchus
Savanna in association with game or livestock scarce outside of game reserves and parks, formerly more widespread.
Red-Billed Oxpecker on their perch. I have seen them almost completely inside a Rhino ear.
Spotted on Sep 2, 2008
Submitted on Aug 14, 2011
9 Comments
Lovely spotting Punkus!
Please can you add this to the Symbiotic Relationships mission - http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/7987...
Great link Peter, very interesting experiment with these birds.
Interesting info, Dan. After some more in-depth research I've gleaned the same thing, that the "absence of oxpeckers had no significant effect on the change in total tick load in any of the three replicate experiments."
http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/content...
When watching both the Red-Billed and Yellow-Billed Oxpecker, I have seen them swarming at open wounds on all kinds of mammals, so I tend to think they are more parasite than symbiotic partners.
I always thought that too Peter, but I was just reading about this on wiki '
Oxpecker/mammal interactions are the subject of some debate and ongoing research. They were originally thought to be an example of mutualism, but recent evidence suggests that oxpeckers may be parasites instead. Oxpeckers do eat ticks, but often the ticks that have already fed on the ungulate host and there has been no proven statistically significant link between oxpecker presence and reduced ectoparasite load.'
Symbiotic relationships are amazing. I suspect the Oxpecker must keep pests away for the Rhino.
It is already added! Thanks
Suggest add to Mission Birds of the World?
That's amazing!