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 ________.
A) mutualistic, but serve only to remove earwax from the cattle on which they feed
B) in fact parasitic, and create and feed on wounds they make, and also feed on earwax in the cattle
C) mutualistic and only feed on open wounds that have already been created by feeding ticks
D) parasitic and feed on earwax and the open wounds they create during the removal of the earwax
E) mutualistic and feed on open wounds that have already been created by ticks, and additionally feed on earwax

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The observational experiments showed that oxpeckers actually create wounds on cattle and feed on them, in addition to feeding on earwax. Therefore, their relationship with cattle is actually parasitic, rather than mutualistic.

Conventional Wisdom Holds That Oxpeckers Remove Ticks from the Backs