Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 107, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 September 1899 — Curious Partnership. [ARTICLE]

Curious Partnership.

Of late naturalists have become acquainted with numerous examples of animal partnerships. In one of the Chicken Islands, off the New Zealand coast, a curious lizard known as the tuatara and certain species of petrels were found inhabiting the same burrows, apparently on the best of terms. As a rule the lizard is the excavator. The lizard feeds partly on worms, and partly on the remnants of fishes brought to the common table by the petrels, both animals being thus benefited by the partnership. A feeble fish called the remora owes its success in life to the powerful alliances it forms. One of its fins has been transformed into a sucker placed right on the top of its head, by means of which it attaches itself firmly to any passing shark, whale or even ship. By these it is transported without any exertion on its own part over great distances. Several small fishes have been found also to habitually lodge in the mouth cavity of a Brazilian catfish, sharing such food as the latter succeeds in capturing.