Mind Stretcher – copy yellowIn India, the chital, a small deer, has trouble
finding enough grass to eat during the dry season. This deer relies on a certain type of messy-eating monkey. The deer have good eyesight, hearing, and sense of smell.
1. How do you think the monkeys benefit the deer?
2. How do you think the deer benefit the monkeys?
3. What type of relationship is this? commensalism/mutualism/parasitism
What is symbiosis?
What it means:
A close, long-term association between individuals of two different species.**One species ALWAYS Benefits!!
Literal definition: the act of living together
What are the different kinds of symbiosis?
Mutualism ParasitismCommensalism
both organisms benefit
one organism benefits
one organism benefitsone
organism is unaffected
one organism is
harmed
Mutualism: both benefit
Example 1: Acacia plant and Ants
Ants eat the sweet
secretion from the plant.
Ants swarm and attack any
animal that tries to eat the
plant
Mutualism: both benefit
Example 2:
Moray Eel with Cleaner Fish
Moray Eel gets a clean mouth
Cleaner Fish gets a meal
Commensalism: one benefits, one is unaffected
Example 3: Cattle with cattle egrets
Cattle stir up insects as they eat
grass
Egrets hang around and eat insects
Mutualism: both benefit
Example 4: Clown fish with anemone
Clown fish gets protection, nest site, and food.
Anemone gets cleaning,
protection, and a lure to attract
fish
Mutualism: both benefit
Example 5: Antelope with Oxbird
Antelope gets rid
of parasites
Oxbird gets a meal
Parasitism: one benefits, one is harmed
Example 6: Taenia worm in human eye
Worm infects human blood
stream
Human may go blind
Example 7Fleas and Dogs
The fleas use the dogs blood as food.
The dog gets bites and sores from the fleas.
Parasitism: one benefits, one is harmed
1. Clownfish live among the venomous tentacles of a sea anemone. They are protected from predators, and they keep the anemone clean.
2. Barnacles attach themselves to the shells of crabs. The barnacles receive a home. The crab is unaffected.
3.Bees use flower nectar for food, and they carry flower pollen to other flowers, allowing the flower to reproduce.
4. Dutch elm disease is caused by a fungus that grows and feeds on elm trees. The fungus destroys the trees.
5. Orchids grow in tree branches. They receive light, and their roots get water from the air. The tree is not affected.
6. Small mites live on your skin, eating dead skin cells. You don’t even notice.
7. Tapeworms live in the intestines of cats and absorb nutrients from the food cats eat. The cats do not get enough nutrients.
8. Oxpeckers feed on ticks found on a rhinoceros. Oxpeckers get food and the rhinoceros gets cleaned.
9. A flea feeds on a mouse’s blood to the mouse’s detriment.
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