All of us mammals have fur, at least some fur, even you and me and the whales. Of course, not all of us can expect to have glamourous manes like these Warthogs have.
Warthogs
Serengeti
(Click on any image to enlarge it)
Our fur helps us keep warm and provides protection from the sun, but it also gives all of us mammals the problem of keeping it free of ticks and lice and other vermin. Birds have the same problem keeping their feathers clean. They, like many mammals, sometimes address the problem by taking dustbaths.
We watched these Zebras standing in line to wait their turn to roll in the dust at this particular spot, which seems to be the perfect dustbath.
Zebra taking dustbath
Ngorongoro Crater
Another way many mammals rid them selves of ticks and such is to allow Oxpeckers to walk about on their bodies and eat the bugs.
If you look carefully, you'll see that there are a couple of birds on this hippo's back. We saw Giraffes and Antelopes and Elephants and many other animals with Oxpeckers on them. It used to be thought that the Oxpeckers were truly symbiotic on the mammals; that they provided a service in freeing the mammals of bugs and got food themselves, but now we know that they also eat a bit of blood, so their services are not completely to the benefit of the mammals. Indeed several times we saw a Bushbuck or other mammal clearly irritated by their attentions and trying to drive them away.
Here's a better photo of a Yellow-billed Oxpecker. (By the way, the red on its bill isn't blood; that's its natural color.)
Despite the fact that the Oxpeckers charge a fee of blood for their services, it's good for the mammals to have their ticks removed.
Hippo with Oxpeckers
Serengeti
The Oxpeckers leave the primates alone, however, because the primates have adopted a better way of dealing with bugs in their fur.
In this photo, a female Olive Baboon is carefully inspecting the fur of a male and removing any ticks or lice or fleas. This is part of the intense social interactions that are so important to all primates. Indeed, scientists today think that social interactions among primates were one of the big reasons why we kept getting cleverer and cleverer. It takes a lot of brainpower to know all of the members of your troop, and keep in mind what their relationships are, and who owes favors to whom, and who you can trust to help you out in a quarrel.
Thus, as troops of primates get larger, their brains also get larger, until you have us today with our big brains and complicated social interactions. And although we don't sit around picking fleas off one another nowadays, we all still like to have our backs scratched and we're grateful to anybody who helps us remove a tick.
Olive Baboons grooming
Ngorongoro Crater
