In the Everglades , birds and alligators organise an unlikely but beneficial partnership . Several types of water birds , let in Hero of Alexandria and egrets , take to nest directly above the territory of gator , using the alligators almost like bodyguards . The alligator ’ presence protects their chicks from predators such as raccoons or opossums . In exchange , the alligators snack on the wench that have the misfortune to fall out of their nest .
In a young study in the journalPLOS One , a group of Florida - based researcher compared how alligator living under these hiss colonies fare in line to those who do n’t live near bird nest . The goal : to see if the system is as advantageous to the ' gators as to the shuttle . They studied almost 40 dissimilar female person , grownup alligators survive in interchangeable home ground in the Everglades . Some lived near nesting bird colonies belonging to egrets , herons , and similar fowl , while some lived in home ground without any signs of these nest .
alligator that lived near nesting razzing were in much better physical status ( as measured by blood samples , body mass , and body length ) than gator who did n’t have any bird neighbor , they found . The researchers hypothesize that the alligators living near nesting colonies must be good eat from preying on ejected chicks , contribute to their significantly better physical precondition .
“ Our study is the first to demonstrate a mutually good relationship between nesting razz and a crocodilian reptile , ” study co - author Lucas Nellexplainsin a press statement . “ Crocodilians and nesting birds co - occur throughout the tropics , so these may be globally important ecological associations . ”
For birds in risk of get their nests raided , “ foe - free space can be gained by nesting near more formidable fauna for physical shelter , ” the researchers write . Think of it as “ the foeman of my enemy is my Quaker ” theory . While an alligator would n’t climb up a tree to steal doll from a nest , a racoon would . So hanging around an alligator can shew advantageous even though it , too , is a potentially dangerous predator . In play , the alligator do good from eating the chicks that would n’t survive anyway — those that are bumped out of the nest when a bird set more eggs than it ’s capable of take precaution of .
