Question

Conventional wisdom holds that oxpeckers remove ticks from the backs of cattle on which they feed in a mutualistic relationship, and the cattle tolerate the oxpecker's presence because the birds help remove parasites. Weeks (2000) performed observational experiments in Zimbabwe and demonstrated that the relationship between oxpeckers and cattle was not the removal of parasites but that the oxpeckers are ________.

1) mutualistic, but serve only to remove earwax from the cattle on which they feed

2) in fact parasitic, and create and feed on wounds they make, and also feed on earwax in the cattle

3) mutualistic and only feed on open wounds that have already been created by feeding ticks

4) parasitic and feed on earwax and the open wounds they create during the removal of the earwax

5) mutualistic and feed on open wounds that have already been created by ticks, and additionally feed on earwax

Answer 1

Observational experiments by Weeks (2000) have shown that oxpeckers are parasitic, creating and feeding on wounds on cattle, as well as eating earwax, rather than being mutualistic organisms that solely remove ticks.

Option 2 is the correct answer.

Step-by-step explanation:

According to the observational experiments performed by Weeks in 2000 in Zimbabwe, the relationship between oxpeckers and cattle is not based on the removal of parasites. Rather, the oxpeckers are in fact parasitic, and they create and feed on wounds they make, as well as feed on the earwax of the cattle they reside on. This relationship contrasts with mutualism in which both species benefit, as the oxpeckers harm the cattle by creating wounds and feeding on them, without providing the significant benefit of tick removal that was previously assumed.