WEIRDEST ANIMAL RELATIONSHIPS
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ANTS AND LARGE BLUE BUTTERFLY LARVA
the large blue was once extinct in
Britain but it relies on farm animals in
a way so bizarre you couldn’t make it up
meadow ants nesting in the grass may
irritate the adults but are an unlikely
asset for their caterpillars that’s
because large blues have a rather
interesting approach to parental care
their young are adopted by ants the
caterpillar mimics the sound and smell
of the ants own young and mistaken for a
mislaid ant larva is taken back to the
nest by the foraging ant workers but it
doesn’t repay the favor
once underground the caterpillar leads a
predatory life eating the ants own
larvae until one day it’s ready to
change into a pupa and eventually
emerges as one of Britain’s rarest
butterflies ants are vital to the
butterfly but if the grass is too long
they move out so without sheep to keep
the grass short they’d been around and
without the ants the large bloom would
be lost
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they are curious about things that don’t
TURKEYS, DEERS AND SQUIRRELS
benefit their survival directly
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the flight tailed errors found late this
year and as always turkey boys vying for
some reaction but this time he’s bitten
off more than he can chew
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the young deer can give as good as she
gets
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sweet peas favorite is far more amiable
the fox squirrel seems to want to play
as much as she does
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there’s no question in my mind that
these birds experience joy in their
lives
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it was learning new things about turkeys
every day but this was not just about
how they lived their life these animals
were showing me how to live my life also
SUNFISH AND CLEANER FISH
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two meters 83 meters just an hour into
their dive and the team has found a
sunfish
they’ve never observed one this deep
before
it’s really elegant despite the fact
that it just looks like a big dinner
plate with two offense on either size
sunfish can grow to be over three metres
long and weighed two and a half tons
it’s the world’s largest bony fish as it
grows it gains an incredible 1 kilogram
per day
it’s mean food is jellyfish so T Ernie
thinks sunfish might be venturing down
here to feed owner but today that after
something else
some fish skin carries as many as 40
different parasites but tiny organisms
are removed by cleaner fish
without this cleaning service sunfish
would become infested with parasites
compromising their health this is the
first time that such behavior has been
seen at depth in Galapagos
like it’s sort of it in another world
right now it doesn’t it doesn’t seem
like it’s very aware of what’s going on
around it by taking that unusual
attitude it’s saying to everybody who
could potentially clean it I’m ready for
my spa treatment come in and exfoliate
me I’m not gonna eat you I’m I’m at
peace and come do your things for me
they underscore how everybody plays a
role everyone is what makes this system
tick
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marine iguanas takin too much salt with
IGUANAS, LIZARDS, CRABS & SEA LIONS
their food but with the help of special
plans they sneeze it out
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they also welcome these resourceful
visitors sally lightfoot crabs like to
groom them for algae parasites and dead
skin
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lava lizards far smaller reptilian
relatives have found their own ingenious
ways to get by on this fierce shoreline
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they enjoy a special relationship with
the sea lions the lizards rid them of
flies which can be a ticklish nuisance
this sea lion accepts these predatory
lizards both benefit
with hiding places at a premium fish
PEARLFISH AND SEA CUCUMBER
will go to incredible lengths to hide
down here and none more so than this the
pearl fish is vulnerable out in the open
so while not feeding it must conceal
itself but it has a particular taste in
hiding places this is a sea cucumber
which feeds on the sea floor its body is
basically a living tube it sucks in sand
at one end extracts anything edible and
passes waste out the other just what the
pearl fish has been looking for but not
the mouth end it’s drawn to the odor of
the other end
sea cucumbers are repulsive to most
predators so the pearl fish is safe
inside it’ll stay there until it’s time
to feed again
it doesn’t harm its host but the bad
news for sea cucumbers is that pearl
fish are happy to share their temporary
home with others it seems there’s plenty
of room for all
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