Turtles Groom Warthog in Never-Before-Seen Behavior - via Herp Digest

By James Owen, National Geographic, 10/8/15

To see photos go to http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/151008-turtles-warthogs-africa-animals-science/

It may not be the most fashionable salon on the savannah, but turtles were recently caught operating a grooming service for warthogs out of a muddy waterhole in South Africa.

In recent pictures taken in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, two South African helmeted turtles (Pelomedusa galeata) pluck parasites from a warthog (Phacochoerus africanus)—a behavior that's never been documented before.

In fact, there are very few records of turtles cleaning other animals, either on land or in the ocean, according to a report in the September issue of Herpetological Review.

The married authors, ornithologist Andy Jones and wildlife resources manager Michelle Leighty Jones, both of Ohio's Cleveland Museum of Natural History, chanced upon the odd interaction while on vacation in February.

Andy and Michelle were watching a warthog when it entered a waterhole, and two turtles swam toward it.

“Once the turtles started circling and biting at the warthog’s skin, we knew we were seeing something unusual,” Andy said.

Having lowered itself into the muddy water, the warthog waited patiently for ten minutes as the two feeding turtles attended to it. The mammal didn't flinch even when turtles pulled ticks from its face, and at one point it lowered itself further in the water to allow a turtle to reach a large, blood-sucking fly on its back. 

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, but we had no idea that this behavior was so poorly documented,” Jones says.

I'll Scratch Your Back...

Such behavior is rarely seen, confirms reptile expert Bill Branch, honorary curator emeritus at South Africa's Port Elizabeth Museum, who wasn't involved in the new report.

Branch notes via email that the only previously recorded instances of freshwater turtles eating ticks or other parasites on larger animals involved Cape buffalo and rhinos.

“I can think of no other reptile that regularly cleans ticks off other large vertebrates,” he says.

The scarcity of such records may be partly due to the fact that oxpeckers and other birds regularly clean parasites from large African mammals, including warthogs, while they're on land. 

Specialist groomers, such as oxpeckers, cleaner fish, and cleaner shrimp, have evolved mutually beneficial partnerships with their host animals—the cleaners get a meal, while the host rids itself of pesky parasites. 

Grooming Comb your hair and don't forget to clean behind your ears. Humans aren't the only creatures with a penchant for tidying themselves up. Some others just use a tongue instead of a wash cloth!

In rare turtle cases like this warthog one, however, Branch suspects the grooming is just opportunistic feeding—and not evidence of established mutualistic behavior between the two species. 

Andy Jones adds the time of year may have been a factor: It was the dry season, and food was likely scarce for the turtles in their shrunken waterhole.

“I expect that hungry turtles routinely bite at flies on whatever surface is around, and in some cases the mammals are smart enough to remember this and return the next time flies or ticks are bothering them,” he says. 

While a mud bath with turtles might be smart thinking for a warthog, luckily we humans have a much easier solution: bug repellent.  

Africa: warthog befriends hornbill for grooming favour

Friday, 26 February 2010
By Jody Bourton
Earth News reporter

A warthog has been pictured being groomed by a huge bird known as a ground hornbill.

The warthog approached the southern ground hornbill seeking the favour, and the bird obliged by removing parasites from the warthog's body.

Similar interactions occur between warthogs and other animals such as banded mongooses.

But hornbills are not known to groom in this way, say scientists who photographed the incident.

Details of the behaviour are reported in the African Journal of Ecology.

"The warthogs approached the hornbills and then lay down on their sides to be cleaned," explains Dr Hendri Coetzee of North West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa.

"The warthogs were very nervous, because this behaviour most probably makes them more vulnerable to predation."

Opposites attract

Dr Coetzee says he repeatedly observed similar interactions between common warthogs (Phacochoerus africanus) and southern ground hornbills (Bucorvus leadbeateri) in the Mabula Game Reserve in South Africa's Limpopo Province.

The arrangement is mutually beneficial: the warthog gets a cleaning service and the ground hornbill a nutritious and easily obtainable food source.

Other animals will also groom warthogs, picking off parasites from the wild pig's body.

For example, banded mongooses remove ticks from warthogs, in what is believed by scientists to be the only symbiotic relationship between two mammal species.

Oxpecker birds also regularly clean the skins of a number of African mammals, including zebra and hippos.

But the interactions with the hornbills stood out because the warthogs usually initiated the grooming.

Southern ground hornbills are large black plumaged birds, with powerful beaks that can kill tortoises and large snakes.

"What surprised me was how delicately they were removing parasites from the warthogs," says Dr Coetzee.

"Adult warthogs even tolerated the ground hornbills probing their ears and around their more delicate areas under their tails."

Dr Coetzee speculates that the animals might be behaving this way in part because they are living on a game reserve, where they might be less threatened and more relaxed.

"It is most likely the result of learned behaviour and regular contact between the same individuals living under somewhat artificial circumstances, where the risk of predation is reduced," he explains.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8534000/8534844.stm