Believe it or not there are birds who run a mobile cleaning
and grooming service for animals in the bush. Red billed oxpeckers, as they are
called do just that.
The birds literally travel on animals from warthog, impala
and kudu to buffalo rhino and giraffe and clean their fur of unwanted skin
parasites and ticks. The mighty elephant disdains this service, preferring to
douse himself with mud and scrape off the little nasties with the dried mud on
a convenient tree.
I got a neat video of the birds working on a large client, a
giraffe, and was able to see them work first hand.
These guys even build and line their nest with the hair of
their clientele but there is a dark side to them as well. They are one of the
only birds who feed almost exclusively on blood and blood sucking insects and
so when their host has a wound they make the most of the easy pickings and
sometimes delay healing by weeks.
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