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Best Buddies

• Producer: Make food energy

• Consumer: Cannot make food; get energy by eating other organisms

• Decomposer: Break down dead material into molecules that other organisms can use

• Predator/Prey: one benefits (food) while the other is hunted, killed and eaten

• Mutualism: both benefit from the relationship

• Parasitism: One benefits and the other is harmed

• Commensalism: one benefits and the other is unaffected

Forest 1 Mushroom

Forest 1 Mushroom

• The forest produces food from sunlight.

• Mushrooms break down dead material.

Forest 1 Mushroom

• Forest = Producer

• Mushroom = Decomposer

Elephant 2 Grasslands


• The grassland produces food from sunlight.

• The elephant eats grass.


• Grassland = Producer

• Elephant = Consumer

Lion 3 Man

Lion 3 Man

• Sometimes man is hunted by the lion.

• Sometimes the lion is hunted by man.

Lion 3 Man

Predator/Prey

Leaves 4 Grasshopper


• Leaves produce food from sunlight.

• Grasshoppers eat leaves.


• Leaves = Producers

• Grasshopper = Consumers

Ant 5 Aphid

Ant 5 Aphid

• Cornfield ants are generally small, light brown to black in color and usually found in damp areas. They are often found beneath moist rotting wood in shaded woodlands but can also be found in sunny open areas under logs, stones or pavement. They can be found throughout most of the United States. This ant gets its name because of its close association with the Corn Root Aphid. In order for the Cornfield ant to remain well supplied in honeydew, this ant with almost human-like intelligence, will foster these aphids and ward off any of their enemies. In return, the aphids supply the ants with honeydew.

Ant 5 Aphid

• Ant : feeds and protects aphid = benefits

• Aphid : produces food for ant = benefits


Buffalo 6 Cowbird

Buffalo 6 Cowbird

• Buffalo used to travel across the plains. As they walked through the grass the insects would fly out of the grass and the cowbirds would eat them. The cowbirds would follow the buffalo, which helped them catch insects. This neither helped nor hurt the buffalo.

Buffalo 6 Cowbird

• Buffalo stirs up insects

• Cowbird eats insects buffalo stirs up


Badger 7 Honeyguide

Badger 7 Honey Guide

• The African honey guide is a bird with a peculiar taste for bee’s wax, a substance that is more difficult to digest than cellulose. In order to obtain bees’ wax, the honey guide must first get help from the badger. The badger opens the hive and licks the honey out. In turn the bird is benefited by getting the wax.

Badger 7 Honey Guide

• Badger = opens beehive

• Honey Guide = shows badger location of beehive


Hermit Crab 8 Snail

Hermit Crab 8 Snail

• A hermit crab has a hard shell, just like a blue crab, on most of its body. One part, its tummy or abdomen, is soft. To protect itself, the hermit crab hides its soft part inside a snail’s discarded shell, or the shell of a dead snail. When a hermit crab gets bigger, it has to find a new snail shell. The crab goes around trying on new empty shells until it find the perfect fit.

Hermit Crab 8 Snail

• Hermit Crab = uses snail shell

• Snail = discards shell when outgrown


Deer 9 Tick

Deer 9 Tick

• A tick lives on a deer. The tick gets nutrients from the blood of the deer. The deer may be weakened by the loss of nutrients or may get a disease from the tick.

Deer 9 Tick

• Deer = provides home for tick

• Tick = feeds on deer blood, passes disease


Cuckoo 10 Warbler

Cuckoo 10 Warbler

• The cuckoo does not build a nest and raise young. Instead she puts her eggs in the nest of warblers and they raise her babies.

• However, the cuckoo babies are bigger than the other birds, so thy are able to get more of the food from the parent birds, often causing the other nestlings to starve.

Cuckoo 10 Warbler

• Cuckoo = lays eggs in warblers nest

• Warbler = hatches, feeds cuckoo offspring, warbler chicks may die


Ostrich 11 Gazelle

Ostrich 11 Gazelle

• Ostriches and gazelles feed next to each other. They both watch for predators and alert each other to danger. Since the visual abilities of the species are different, they each can identify threats the other animal would not see as readily.

Ostrich 11 Gazelle

• Ostrich lives with gazelle herds and helps warn them of danger

• Gazelle lives with ostrich herds and helps warn them of danger


Remora (Suckerfish) 12 Shark


• The remora feeds off the crumbs and scraps from a shark feeding.

• The shark doesn’t know the remora is around.


• Remora feeds off shark scraps.

• The shark doesn’t know the remora is around.


Clown Fish 13 Sea Anemone


• The clown fish builds up an immunity to the sea anemones poison and then lives in the safety of the anemone, venturing out only to catch its food. The anemone gets a partner that will remove debris and lure other fish for the anemone to eat.


• Clown Fish = cleans Sea Anemone and lures fish

• Sea Anemone = provides home and protection to Clown Fish


Mistletoe 14 Spruce Tree


• Mistletoe extracts water and nutrients from the spruce tree to the tree’s detriment.


• Mistletoe extracts water and nutrients from the spruce tree

• Spruce tree dies


Yucca 15 Yucca Moth

Yucca 15 Yucca Moth

• The yucca plant is not pollinated by other insects other than the moth. The moth is tied to the plant and does not venture into other flowers. The adult moth resides inside the yucca flowers.

• Yucca flowers are a certain shape so only that tiny moth can pollinate them. The moths lay their eggs in the yucca flowers and the larvae (caterpillars) live in the developing ovary and eat yucca seeds.

Yucca 15 Yucca Moth

• Moth pollinates the yucca plant.

• The yucca plant provides a home for the moth.


Bromeliads 16 Tree Frog


• Bromeliads are plants that grow on other plants. They are found in rain forests and often collect water. Several species of tree frog will lay several eggs inside a bromeliad. This provides a safe pool for the tadpoles to develop into frogs.


• Bromeliads are home to tree frog tadpoles.


Barnacle 17 Whale

Barnacle 17 Whale

• The barnacle itself is a filter feeder, sticking its feathery legs out of its shells and gathering microscopic plankton from the water. These whale barnacles use the whale as a substrate for attachment and the current of water passing over the whale to bring them lots of plankton. It does not have to expend a lot of energy filtering the water because the whale provides all the movement. (Most barnacles attached to solid substrates must expend a lot of energy kicking their legs in and out to get enough plankton to survive.)

Barnacle 17 Whale

• The barnacle benefits by easy feeding when attached to the whale.

• The whale isn’t bothered by the barnacle.


Thick Knee 18 Crocodile


• The Thick Knee is a type of bird that will eat parasites on the skin and teeth of the crocodile. The crocodile benefits by having these parasites removed. The Thick Knee gets food.


• The crocodile gets parasites removed.

• The Thick Knee gets food.


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