Zebra cleans hippopotamus's teeth

What an amazing photo!! I've heard of birds that climb inside Crocodiles mouths, but never Zebra cleaning hippos teeth!!

Nature never fails to amaze all of us. Fantastic!

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The hippo is one of world's most aggressive animals and can kill with one snap of its powerful jaw.

Visitors to the zoo where both animals live were amazed to see the zebra craning its neck into the mouth of the water-loving mammal.
But their surprise increased when they realised the striped creature was cleaning the hippo's teeth

The extraordinary spectacle was captured by Jill Sonsteby, a photographer, at Zurich Zoo, in Switzerland

www.telegraph.co.uk...

Animals can communicate with each other more than we think. It is almost like a form of telepathy. We humans have the same ability but we cut ourselves off from it and use verbal/written language instead.

Cute photo.

Originally posted by avatar01
Animals can communicate with each other more than we think. It is almost like a form of telepathy. We humans have the same ability but we cut ourselves off from it and use verbal/written language instead.

Cute photo.

Not sure id call it telepathy, more an extremely acute visual empathy. They pick up on body langauge us humans just cant see. Either way its at least a good example of the fact animals do far more than just the old 'instinct' behaviour like some people try to put forward (usually as a form of justification for other things, or to put animals in their 'place' ).

Acts like this show us that each animal has its own mental dance thats all its own that isnt tied to prewired actions. They think, pure and simple... i mean instinct didnt make the Zebra clean the teeth, and instinct didnt reduce the hippos aggression. Two animals made a deliberate choice. Cant get more free willed than that.

Always love examples of animals bucking the 'instinct' trend and friendly inter species interaction since it ties in with my own views on animals and life in general on this mud ball. Doesnt matter its size or its appearance... its an individual on some level, and deserving of respect. The interesting thing to me is would this have happened in nature?.. or is the fact the animals are kept together in an environment where they dont have to revert to 'instinct' to survive, allow them to show more of who they really are like on the inside and develop more of a personality compared to the ones who have to expend all their energy into keeping one step ahead of their food, or those that will turn them into food?