Thursday, June 25, 2009

Sybiotic birds

Usually, when you see a symbiotic relationship between birds and large mammals, it is a mutually beneficial one, such as the case with the oxpecker and large grazing mammals in africa.

Not this time.

That is scary. I would not want to be a whale who's getting eaten alive by seagulls...

2 comments:

klinton said...

yes, that is very scary. wow. (though I'm not sure how this is symbiotic?)

Taking it like a man said...

Symbiosis: Biology. A close, prolonged association between two or more different organisms of different species that may, but does not necessarily, benefit each member.

Is it close? about as close as the distance between a bird's beak and a whale's blubber when the bird is eating the whale's blubber. Is it prolonged? How long does it take for a bunch of sea birds to make that many holes on a whale's back?

Ok, so symbiosis might be a stretch, but is there a better term? short term parasitic symbiosis maybe?