Mutually-Beneficial Animal Relationships (PHOTOS)

We thought we'd start the new year off right by looking at how our friends in the animal kingdom help each other out. There is a multitude of ways in which animals interact in nature, beyond the typical predator/prey dichotomy. Many animals have developed mutually-beneficial relationships with each other. Whether it's for access to food or protection, these animals prove that cooperation is everywhere.

Check out these mutual symbiotic animal relationships and vote for your favorite animal pair.

Egrets and Large Mammals

Egets are found around a number of large mammal species, from hippos to water buffalo. The birds will feed off of parasites, such a lice and ticks, found on large mammals, in exchange protection and possibly free transportation. With the hippos, at times, the hippos open their mouths so that the birds can pick up food there.

comments(14)

Rate This Photo (Current Rank: loading...)

eh, not that special pretty sweet deal

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Now Make Your Own Top 5

And Share with Your Friends

Average rating: loading... out of 10

Current Top 5 Slides

loading...

Share Your Top 5 Slides

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

Share Your Top 5 Slides

Users Who Voted on this Slide

loading...

loading...

HuffPost Community Top 5 Slides:

«»

 | Become a fan

Share Your Top 5 Slides

 

Get HuffPost Green On Facebook and Twitter!

Comments

[ChelseaC]

03:09 AM on 01/05/2010

I love the zebra and birds--how beautiful!

[doctor gogol]

06:00 PM on 01/04/2010

bviously those animals are socialists who hate America and have a hand out from others.

I think I'll go shout at my congressman to stop them!

[LightAngel]

03:10 PM on 01/04/2010

Nice picture of the zebra, looks like its smiling. very cute

[KJLSanDiego]

01:41 PM on 01/04/2010

thanks for the info and neat pics, huffpo!

[CoyoteMan]

12:59 PM on 01/04/2010

Mutual symbiotic relationships describes the entire eco-system of the planet.
Then the stoopid humans come along to screw the pooch!
Bye bye Planet Earth.

[Matt58]

11:38 AM on 01/04/2010

And then there's the relationship between humans and domestic cats. The former provide the latter with food, shelter and love, and the latter star in Youtube videos that bring laughter and smiles to millions of viewers.

[heather65]

11:54 AM on 01/04/2010

true...and don't forget the cat keeps the rodents out...well, some cats do. i've had cats that just play with the mice allowing them to eventually escape the torment.

[HensonFan]

11:26 AM on 01/04/2010

Man, the photo captioned "Cleaner Shrimp And Large Fish" is liable to give me nightmares. I've studied it for a good three minutes and I'm still not sure what I'm looking at.

[TazoWolf]

12:36 PM on 01/04/2010

That's an eel it's cleaning.

[mac2586]

09:51 AM on 01/04/2010

My goodness...could somebody please spell check the captions under these photos! Unbelievably unprofessional.

[Ed Drone]

10:50 AM on 01/04/2010

Not only spelling, but content. The "in return" sentence that ends it is redundant, and essentially sounds stupid.

[This is in reference to the "meat ants" photo caption, by the way.]

Ed

[Doc0976]

03:06 PM on 01/04/2010

Yeah, it was an otherwise interesting read but still disastrous in the spelling and grammar departments.

"With the hippos, at times, the hippos open their mouths so that the birds can pick up food there."

Huh?