Opportunistic oxpeckers can be both a headache and a help to hippos
AS ANYONE WHO HAS LIVED IN A FLAT will attest, few things are more irritating than noisy upstairs neighbours. So spare a thought for this grumpy-looking hippopotamus in South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, suffering the chatterings of a redbilled oxpecker and its young (right) brazenly treating its head as a floating pontoon.
The birds do come with some benefits, though, as they remove ticks, mites, fleas and maggots from hippos’ hides – akind of cleaning service. However, they are also known to peck at wounds and occasionally drink their blood, so it’s unclear whether it is a mutualistic or parasitic relationship.
Found across the savannah of sub-Saharan Africa, oxpeckers will happily hitch a ride – and steal a meal – from cattle, zebras and rhinos, too. Interestingly, observations of rhinos suggests that the oxpecker’s hissing alarm call can alert their host to danger. Perhaps another reason to put up with these cheeky neighbours, despite their irritations.
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“The birds are often arguing”
“During the dry season hippos will gather in ‘hippo pools’, situated in quiet bends along the Luangwa River,” say wildlife photographer couple Jean-Louis Klein and Marie-Luce Hubert. “The oxpeckers are often arguing and jumping from one ‘amphibian horse’ to another. This juvenile is begging its parent for food.”