01.05a – Predators

Episode description:

In this series on symbiosis, we’re taking a deep dive into the many different types of relationships organisms have evolved into, the good, the bad, the benign. This episode highlights relationships in which one partner’s a total dud: behold the neutral symbiont. The relationships can be the result of complete and totally unbalanced competition where the other symbiont is harmed (amensalism) or when one species exploits and is benefitted by the resources offered up by the other at no cost to the latter (commensalism: think dung beetles). No species is entirely isolated from the impact of another organism in its environment so we’ll talk about that gray space between commensalism and mutualism, amensalism and exploitation. Welcome to the Single Acorn.

WORKS CITED

• Atmospheric nitrogen fixation by lightning (link)
• Australian ‘firehawks’ use fire to catch prey (link)
• Crocodiles, Alligators Hunt in Groups, Scientist Says (link)
• Army ants
• Grasshopper mice videos (link)
• The evolution of colony-level development in the Siphonophora (Cnidaria:Hydrozoa) (link)
• Video of sponge’s creating a water current (link)
• “Living Together Apart”: The Hidden Genetic Diversity of Sponge Populations (link)
• Bighorn sheep shrinking due to hunters, study suggests (link)
• Habitat Specialist Birds Disperse Farther and Are More Migratory Than Habitat Generalist Birds (link)
• Shape of Life docuseries (link)
• Bait-fishing by birds: A fascinating example of tool use (link)
• White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) Predation on Grassland Songbird Nestlings (link)
  • Video of deer eating  (link)
• Living like weasels by Annie Dillard (link)
• Tournament species (link)