Cleaning symbiosis is a mutually beneficial association between individuals of two species, where one removes and eats parasites and other materials from the surface of the other. Cleaning symbiosis is well-known among marine fish, where some small species of cleaner fish, notably wrasses but also species in other genera, are specialised to feed almost exclusively by cleaning larger fish and other marine animals. Other cleaning symbioses exist between birds and mammals, and in other groups.
Cleaning behaviour of yellow-billed oxpecker (Buphagus africanus) on the back of a large mammal
Giant moray eel being cleaned by a bluestreak cleaner wrasse
Herodotus asserted that the trochilus bird, possibly a sandpiper, was able to enter the mouth of the Nile crocodile in what would now be called a cleaning symbiosis. Drawing by Henry Scherren, 1906
Small, long, blue-striped cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus) servicing a lunar-tailed bigeye (Priacanthus hamrur)
Mutualism describes the ecological interaction between two or more species where each species has a net benefit. Mutualism is a common type of ecological interaction. Prominent examples are:the nutrient exchange between vascular plants and mycorrhizal fungi,
the fertilization of flowering plants by pollinators,
the ways plants use fruits and edible seeds to encourage animal aid in seed dispersal, and
the way corals become photosynthetic with the help of the microorganism zooxanthellae.
Hummingbird hawkmoth drinking from Dianthus, with pollination being a classic example of mutualism
The red-billed oxpecker eats ticks on the impala's coat, in a cleaning symbiosis.
Ocellaris clownfish and Ritter's sea anemones live in a mutual service-service symbiosis, the fish driving off butterflyfish and the anemone's tentacles protecting the fish from predators.
Dogs and sheep were among the first animals to be domesticated.
