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:

Apr 16, 2026Skagit Valley Tulip Festival
Jul 13, 2023International Rock Day
Jun 11, 2024Southern gemsbok in the savannah, Botswana
May 24, 2021A bridge comes full circle
Apr 2, 2026Wildflower bloom, Central Valley, California
Jun 10, 2019Ponta da Piedade rock formations in Portugal
Jan 15, 2026The fishing village of Reine, Norway
Sep 14, 2024Rapa Nui National Park, Easter Island, Chile
Nov 20, 2023World Childrens Day
Jan 18, 2018Entoloma hochstetteri mushroom at Lake Mahinapua, New Zealand
Aug 24, 2019Get the bear facts
Feb 17, 2024Black History Month
Sep 2, 2020A rock in a wild place
Aug 25, 2018Happy trails for the 21st century
Oct 25, 2018A silent witness to history
Jan 16, 2026Leopard at Etosha National Park, Namibia
Aug 29, 2023American bison, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
Jan 20, 2023Penguin Awareness Day
Sep 4, 2021Humming along
Nov 10, 2023Badlands National Parks 45th anniversary
May 29, 2025Miravet, Catalonia, Spain
Jun 11, 2021An island in the Highlands
Feb 15, 2023Hippo family in Chobe National Park, Botswana
May 13, 2020Of moose and Maine
Jul 13, 2018The puffin-rabbit connection
Nov 25, 2024Masai giraffes in Amboseli National Park, Kenya
Nov 13, 2022River Quoich in Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Nov 9, 2018Let’s go foraging
Jun 3, 2019Oh, happy day!
Apr 11, 2023Mossy Grotto Falls, Oregon