Relationship status: It s complicated Aug 28, 2021

Relationship status: It s complicated

By posing for us, are these red-billed oxpeckers imposing on the impala? Well, science hasn"t quite decided on this one. The relationship between parasite-eating birds and hoofed mammals was once considered a textbook example of mutualism, with oxpeckers cleaning up the ticks and fleas that bug the bigger beasts. Which is what we"d like to think is going on here.

© Heini Wehrle/Minden Pictures

palette

Today in History

Aug 28, 2018Class, please take out a No. 2 pencil…
Aug 28, 2019Florentine garden brings generations together
Aug 28, 2020A prison fit for a count
Aug 28, 2022Bearded reedlings in Flevoland
Aug 28, 2023Dubrovnik, Croatia
Aug 28, 2024Paralympic Games begin in Paris
Aug 28, 2025A great white egret in Hungary

More Desktop Wallpapers:

Mar 20, 2018Celebrating the first day of spring
Jul 30, 2024San Gimignano, Siena Tuscany, Italy
Mar 27, 2023New York City skyline
Dec 3, 2024Amber Fort, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
Sep 17, 2020Citizenship Day and Constitution Day
Mar 18, 2023Gamboa Crater, Mars
Mar 1, 2023Womens History Month
Nov 6, 2021World Numbat Day
Apr 28, 2020Happy 800th, Salisbury Cathedral
Jun 14, 2024Flag Day
Aug 18, 2021Pearl of the Adriatic
Apr 2, 2024Beech trees and wild anemones, Jutland, Denmark
Mar 7, 2023Terraced rice fields, Yuanyang County, China
May 3, 2022Teacher Appreciation Day
Aug 3, 2018Taking the scenic route to Sturgis
Jul 5, 2020There once was a lighthouse from...
Jun 25, 2022Brown bears, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska
Jul 18, 2023Great hornbill, Thailand
Jan 3, 2023Sandhill cranes, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge
Aug 14, 2018Combating extinction with citizen science
Dec 8, 2021Petrified Forest National Park
Jan 30, 2018Watson Lake in Granite Dells, Arizona
Oct 13, 2022Alaska moose
Jun 5, 2024World Environment Day
May 1, 2022AAPI Heritage Month & Lei Day
Jan 23, 2019Celebrating Pie Day is as easy as, well…
Nov 1, 2023Native American Heritage Month
Oct 8, 2025World Octopus Day
Nov 13, 2018Autumn’s swan song
Oct 14, 2020In praise of the old…the very old