If Different Species Can Get Along…
Tue, Jun 2, 2009
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Image via: Let’s be friends
OK, we’ll admit it, animal friendships are the staple of every blog site from here to www.timbuktu.com, but animals are animals, so we had to get on the bandwagon sooner or later. Still, we’ve tried to keep things interesting and not just indulgent here, with an emphasis on the coolest as well as cutest match-ups, good photography, and interesting stories or explanation behind what’s going on in the shot.
Monkey on my back
Image: Roberto Saccon
This first match made in heaven comes from photographer Roberto Saccon, who was watching out of his car window in São Luís, Brazil, when he couldn’t believe the sight that met his eyes: a monkey riding on a dog’s back. Luckily he was carrying his camera, so he jumped out of the car and followed the unusual couple. The dog’s owners lived nearby and allowed Saccon to shoot some photos, telling him that only one of their two dogs had formed the special relationship with the cute little monkey.
Image: Roberto Saccon
This behaviour may be based on reciprocity derived from the monkey’s habit of presenting its back to other monkeys who then pick out parasites. However, since the dog is unlikely to do the same for the monkey, we can but guess what the monkey hopes to gain from the situation. Protection or a free ride could be possible answers. Or maybe it is just pure altruism. It’s a cynical world though, so we doubt it.
Ferry cruise
Image via: Let’s be friends
It’s hard to tell what’s guiding the behaviour of this next funny pair, though it looks like the frog may be getting steered by the mouse’s tiny paw. Is the mouse being rescued from highwater by the frog or is that just one opportunistic rodent hitching along for the ride? Either way, it’s a shot that has become a bit of a classic on the old intertubes, scoring high in the cutesy stakes.
Take you under my wing
Image via: Let’s be friends
Another popular pic on the web, here we see what appears to be a baby rat or hamster nestled under the wing of a cockatiel. Needless to say, this snapshot of apparent domestic bliss involving two household pets has elicited many a sentimental “aww”, though a surprising number of people have also cried fake, even accusing the bird of being straight off the taxidermist’s table. We sincerely hope not.
Desert island paradise
Image: Deeble
Less a ferry ride than an a floating archipelago for these tortoises in this sweet black-and-white shot, taken in the African wilderness. This may be an example of symbiosis, a term that describes close and often long-term interactions between animals of different species. Hippos are more commonly known for their symbiotic relationships with certain birds, which are given free reign to pick parasites out of the hippo’s skin while getting themselves a free meal in the bargain.
Got you on my shoulder
Image: icelight
Is this another example of symbiosis in action? It’s certainly a great shot and a welcome dive beneath the ocean’s surface, which no article of this nature would be complete without. These two seem perfectly content sticking together, and it may be that a new relationship behaviour is developing between the species that’s unique to the shores of Little Cayman in the Caribbean, where the photo was taken. Perhaps the ray is being cleaned, while its companion fish gets to scavenge food.
Nose to nose
Image via: Let’s be friends
This pic is another that comes courtesy of unusual animal match-ups site, Let’s Be Friends. It seems more of a brief encounter than the beginnings of a beautiful friendship, but it’s a really cool capture nevertheless. Amazing how tolerant moose and kitten are as they sniff each other out. They must both be pretty chilled animals.
Just chilling
Image via: Let’s be friends
These two definitely know where it’s at in the chilling department, in this picture of the joys of home comfort. Apparently, feline friend Jasmine makes a great baby sitter, helped by the string the kids of the house tie around the turtle’s shell, so that when the turtle trundles off, the cat pulls him back. The cat sleeps in the box and the turtle has become the bed mate.
I got you babe
Image via: haha
This unusual friendship between a chimpanzee named Anjanaand and a white tiger cub blossomed quickly. No sooner had the cub been born than the aww-inspiring pair became inseparable. It seems the chimp’s maternal instincts kicked in as she helped to raise the cub, much to the amazement of zoo keepers at The Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species (TIGER), in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Lean on me
Image: daan f.
This last image is definitely a domestic affair, as two pets of the lapin and canine variety get together for cuddles. Of course dogs and rabbits may not be too fond of one another in the wild, but tame them under our roofs and they become part of the same pack or colony, so that the mutual warmth they can offer overcomes the natural instincts of predator and prey. If only human adversaries could be as quick to bury the hatchett.
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2 Trackbacks For This Post
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popurls.com // popular today Says:
June 3rd, 2009 at 1:00 pmpopurls.com // popular today…
story has entered the popular today section on popurls.com…
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Diferentes especies llevándose bien [ENG] Says:
June 4th, 2009 at 10:13 pm[...] Diferentes especies llevándose bien [ENG] www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/if-different-species-… por hugamen hace pocos segundos [...]
June 2nd, 2009 at 9:17 pm
“Of course dogs and rabbits may not be too fond of one another in the wild, but tame them under our roofs and they become part of the same pack or colony, so that the mutual warmth they can offer overcomes the natural instincts of predator and prey. If only human adversaries could be as quick to bury the hatchett.”
so true, so true. *sigh*
that photo of the dog and the rabbit is awesome.
June 3rd, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Its not a turtle its a bloody Tortoise. Jesus, its a different animal!
June 3rd, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Nice one, love the photographs. I love animals!
June 3rd, 2009 at 2:03 pm
“Another popular pic on the web, here we see what appears to be a baby rat or hamster nestled under the wing of a cockatiel”
I don’t want to appear as a know-it-all, but that’s no cockatiel. A cockatiel is a small parrot, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockatiel , this is a finch of some sort, probably a canary.
Still, awesome pics.
June 3rd, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Thats a cool looking dog… Brindle i believe is the color.
Funny i have a dog that looks just like it but it was allergic to cigarette smoke. So i actually bought one of these new Electronic Cigarette
My doggie loves me again lol
June 3rd, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Not even close to being a Cockatiel…
Baby rat looks ill.
The picture is cute at first, until you actually look at it.
June 3rd, 2009 at 3:18 pm
In most of these cases I feel like they’re not really so much friends. I mean, most of them have on animal being ridden or used as a pillow. That one is probably just annoyed but figures it’s not worth the effort to shake the other one off.
June 3rd, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Religion is the poison that keeps humans from getting along. We could learn a lot from our religious-less animal friends.
June 3rd, 2009 at 3:50 pm
The bird in the 2nd picture isn’t a cockatiel. I haven’t been able to figure out what exactly it IS, I just know it’s not a cockatiel.
June 3rd, 2009 at 4:11 pm
you want to know why it is that animals get along with each other better than people? because they don’t have the issues people have, but try to act like we don’t have. not only that, but animals are not responsible for choosing to believe in God, whereas we as God’s creations, are responsible for who we say is God. it’s not a conflict of the Christian “religion” vs. every other religion out there. it’s REALLY that people are convicted by the love of Jesus they feel in those of us who are Christians, and they don’t know what to do with that love. this is why people who do not know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior are so conflicted within themselves. animals aren’t the ones we should be praising and worshiping just because they get along so well with each other. they’re doing what they do, which is to be who God created them to be. it’s that simple.
June 3rd, 2009 at 4:18 pm
a cockatiel? are you serious? Not even remotely close.
June 3rd, 2009 at 4:48 pm
A couple of years ago I had a (rather obvious) idea to start a blog that just photos like this. I registered the domain Interspecieslove.com, but never got around to launching the thing. Free idea!
June 3rd, 2009 at 7:31 pm
that’s no cockatiel! it’s some sort of passerine
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:32 pm
The hippo and turtle picture reminds me of a awesome yet heartbreaking true story. Apparently a baby hippo was separated from his family during a huge storm. When it was rescued and taken to a sanctuary, it bonded with one of the old resident tortoises. They were inseparable. Unfortunately, I think they had to separate them because the baby hippo was growing and it was dangerous for him to keep sleeping on the tortoise and leaning on the tortoise. Anyway, awesome story. They made a childrens book about it with beautiful artwork. Look up the story: Owen and Mzee.
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:37 pm
The fish you pictured isn’t so much a symbiotic relationship, but the ray is very skilled at locating and disturbing crustaceans and small fish that hide in the sand, the Bar Jack actually follows it around and thanks to being more agile simply steal the food that the ray digs up. Bar Jacks are not (afaik) known to ever clean other species, as this is generally done at cleaning stations by gobies, blennies and some species of shrimp.
I’ve seen several of the jacks following the rays around while they do all the hard work, the dark colouring is their hunting/mooching tone, usually they are silver with a black stripe running down their tail from mid way up their back.
I observed this behaviour off the island of Andros in the Bahamas, and would imagine that similar could be seen wherever both species are found.
June 4th, 2009 at 5:44 am
Awwww that’s so cute!!!
I found this pic a little while ago… it’s so so cute!
the picture of the dog and cat..
http://www.photoartgallery.com/artist/artisttobe
June 4th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
that’s not a cleaner fish, actually ..so who knows what it’s doing
June 5th, 2009 at 7:19 am
unfortunately the monkey and dog one is a little off, I really cringe at that photo. In certain places, they make monkeys like cappuchin (sp?) ride on the backs of dogs purely as entertainment for tourists.
The treatment of both animals is shoddy and vile at best.
June 10th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
@Alfred: Nope, they really are friends. If anything, the dog gets annoyed more often by the rabbit’s constant need for cuddling. Check out this pic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/daan_franken/2603508815/in/photostream/
Wait, that one might be another case of the rabbit serving as a pillow
June 10th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Also, the dog and bunny are pleased that you used their pic. I came to the story from Digg and was surprised to see my dog and bunny!
As an afterthought: maybe next time leave a comment on Flickr so I don’t have to stumble upon them by accident :)
June 13th, 2009 at 11:11 am
The dog with the monkey is very emaciated. >:( The guy who took it should have been feeding the dog instead.
July 31st, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Perfect photos with animals! In my opinion the best picture: bird with mouse. They are rely friends!
August 11th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Commenting on “take you under my wing,” Brit Says:
“Baby rat looks ill. The picture is cute at first, until you actually look at it.” I had an averse intuitive reaction to the photo also, and finally decided the bird and rodent were dead, stuffed, and posed!
August 30th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
my kitten was cuddling with my pet squirral it was soo cute.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:41 pm
That isnt a cockatiel, the beak is wrong, and there is no crest. Looks more like a canary or a finch, possibly a parrotlette