animal fact o'the week: tarantulas with pets

i absolutely love unusual animal friendships. i think the reason i enjoy them so much is because it makes the world seem more like a disney movie (sans the sexist damsel-in-distress-with-dead-parents thing) (and with less musical outbreaks, thankfully)(i digress)

so this week’s animal fact is about an unexpected pairing: tarantulas that keep little frogs as pets!!

there is a very tiny (very cute) species of frogs called microhylids, which measure just under 1/2 inch in length & we’ve observed them in india, sri lanka, and peru living with tarantulas! maybe you are wondering why, or maybe like me, you just figure the tarantula has good taste in company… regardless… there are some hypothesis about this phenomenon.

from the frog’s point of the view, the benefits are obvious. the tarantula serves as a bodyguard of sorts (who wants to mess with a big buff hairy spider??). the frogs also can feed their tadpoles with the tarantula’s leftovers & eat the bugs that are drawn in from said leftovers. for the tarantula, however, the benefits are a little less obvious. one definite advantage of having the frogs around is that they eat the extra teeny ants that normally would go after the tarantula’s eggs. these relationships happen in different parts of the world, and maybe their relationships vary slightly from location to location. maybe the tarantulas just think the frogs are cute. maybe the tarantulas like the sound of the frogs ribbit….. hmm!

there is some debate about whether this relationship is considered commensalism (one species benefits at no real benefit or cost to the other) or mutualism (both species benefit from the other). i don’t know, if i were that tarantula i would be pretty happy about a pet that protected my unborn children…. seems pretty important!!!

(i love the above photo because the frog looks like he is defending his beloved pal)
in case you are the type who likes to read scientific studies, you can read the 1989 study here

animal fact’o the week: sea otter techniques for not floating away from each other

while i usually try to share facts that are unusual, this week i just wanted to share one of my favorite cute animal facts.

sea otters hold paws while they sleep so they don’t drift away from each other!! (see adorable video below)

while they are resting, sea otters actually hang out with a same sex group of otters (between 10-1000 otters). to prevent themselves from floating adrift, they actually wrap themselves up in kelp to stay together & this formation of sea otters is referred to as a raft. i sure wish they all held hands to stay together, but the kelp solution is also pretttttty cute.

when momma sea otters are hunting to provide vittles for their baby, they tie their little one up in kelp to keep ‘em stationary. look at this literal fuzzbucket of a baby below! baby sea otters are too buoyant to hunt for the first 2 months of their lives.

sea otters have the densest fur of any other animal (1 million furs per square inch!!!) because they exclusively use their fur to stay warm. most other sea dwelling mammals also have blubber for insulation. sea otter’s fur only works for warmth when it is clean (as it keeps them warm by trapping air & repelling water), which is why you see them almost constantly grooming.