# Inter-species protection from predators **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 21, 2022, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-species-protection-from-predators/970048 "2022-08-21T21:36:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2022, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-species-protection-from-predators/970048/21 "2022-08-22T16:06:02Z")
Not into seal veal, apparently. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2022, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-species-protection-from-predators/970048/22 "2022-08-22T16:09:17Z")
> [@Tibby](#): > > [This video](https://vimeo.com/102771347) shows an orca apparently showing _mercy_ by pushing a baby seal safely ashore after the pod eats its fill of other seals. That’s not a baby. Which makes it even stranger. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2022, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-species-protection-from-predators/970048/23 "2022-08-22T16:59:52Z")
Humpback whales are commonly seen protecting all kinds of creatures from orcas [Why Humpback Whales Protect Other Animals From Killer Whales](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/humpback-whales-save-animals-killer-whales-explained) ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2022, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-species-protection-from-predators/970048/24 "2022-08-22T17:12:57Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > That’s not a baby. Which makes it even stranger. True. I do recall seeing a similar video years ago where it was a baby seal that was saved by an orca. Orcas are complicated creatures. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2022, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-species-protection-from-predators/970048/25 "2022-08-22T17:22:20Z")
> [@Tibby](#): > > Orcas are complicated creatures. Well, I guess most humans don’t see much cognitive dissonance between cuddling a newborn lamb and chowing down on a nice lamb stew. At least - young children are often horrified when they first learn the truth, but most of them get over it. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2022, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-species-protection-from-predators/970048/26 "2022-08-22T17:34:06Z")
Rhinos and other African livestock benefit from alerts from the Oxpeckers that hang around them. The birds eat parasites, dead skin, and some blood from the backs of the animals and alert when a human or other predator is around. Being higher up they can see the threat coming sooner. The article shows a couple more examples. [These Birds Protect Black Rhinos From Poachers (but Also Drink Their Blood) | Audubon](https://www.audubon.org/news/these-birds-protect-black-rhinos-poachers-also-drink-their-blood) Being somewhat of an outdoors man myself, just spending time in the forest you become aware of the way the birds and animals alert to intruders, and they are all listening to each other. Ravens are always watching and will alert, chipmonks can be noisly little bastards when surprised. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2022, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-species-protection-from-predators/970048/27 "2022-08-22T17:52:45Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Well, I guess most humans don’t see much cognitive dissonance between cuddling a newborn lamb and chowing down on a nice lamb stew. Humans show compassion for cute animals, unless they taste good. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2022, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-species-protection-from-predators/970048/28 "2022-08-22T18:01:32Z")
> [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](#): > > There are nearly-blind shrimp that dig holes for protection. They hang out with a goby, who keeps watch for them. When there is a predator, the goby dives into the hole. I’ve kept shrimp gobies/watchman gobies and the associated shrimp. The shrimp kill by clicking a claw, creating a pressure bubble. In my experience, they kill anything else that lives on the bottom. Mine killed it’s gobie pal when I introduced a goby it preferred. I’ve seen a shrimp cave built against aquarium glass, where the shrimp stored corpses to eat at their leisure. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2022, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-species-protection-from-predators/970048/29 "2022-08-22T18:03:49Z")
Perhaps the orca is really clumsy, or saving the seal for later. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2022, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-species-protection-from-predators/970048/30 "2022-08-22T18:45:45Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Well, I guess most humans don’t see much cognitive dissonance between cuddling a newborn lamb and chowing down on a nice lamb stew. At least - young children are often horrified when they first learn the truth, but most of them get over it. I remember a co-worker talking about her young son… He really loved eating chicken legs, until one day it dawned on him what “chicken leg” meant. He asks “Mom? What’s the rest of the chicken doing?” I don’t know if the coral creature that protects clownfish is an animal or plant (animal, I think). SImilarly, I read that somespecis of small fish are immune to jellyfish stings and will hide inside the tnetacles of a big jellyfish. You often see herds of zebras and wildebeast together on the African planes, because the zebras have good eyes and can see the lions and such approaching. Not sure how cooperative their defenses would be. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2022, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-species-protection-from-predators/970048/31 "2022-08-23T14:50:45Z")
Clownfish sometimes associate with anemones, a marine animal. My clown gobies (not the Nemo guys) sit on coral and anything else in the tank. They can eat the mucous produced by coral. I’m not sure that the coral benefit from the goby presence. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2022, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-species-protection-from-predators/970048/32 "2022-08-23T15:28:03Z")
Songbirds may share or mimic one anothers’ predator alarm calls for a variety of hypothesised reasons, including a sort of generalised mutual benefit of awareness of a common enemy: [https://academic.oup.com/beheco/article/25/3/538/512800](https://academic.oup.com/beheco/article/25/3/538/512800) ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2022, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-species-protection-from-predators/970048/33 "2022-08-24T13:04:17Z")
I was in my back yard feeding Arthur ([Martha’s hubby](https://youtu.be/piN7icAJlsY) earlier this week when a call went up from the neighbourhood [Noisy Miners](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noisy_miner) and every single bird in sight flew into the dense trees, Arthur included. I have never seen them all move so fast so decisively. Overhead a hawk came into view being mercilessly harassed by a couple of crows. An interesting thing is it was a small hawk, too small to be any danger to the crows. I guess that regardless of lack of personal danger they just don’t like predators being around so they harass them on principle. ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2022, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-species-protection-from-predators/970048/34 "2022-08-25T02:08:18Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > I guess that regardless of lack of personal danger they… In my observation, they do that when they have babies nearby and the hawk is eyeing the babies. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2022, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-species-protection-from-predators/970048/35 "2022-08-25T03:06:07Z")
Not breeding season yet here. Although it may well be reflexive based on breeding season instincts. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-species-protection-from-predators/970048.md?page=1)