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Giraffe bed and breakfast: Camera traps reveal Tanzanian yellow-billed oxpeckers roosting on their large mammalian hosts

Oxpeckers are obligate mammal gleaners, feeding on ectoparasites and dead skin of large herbivores (Bezuidenhout & Stutterheim, 1980; Dean & MacDonald, 1981). There are two sympatric species in sub-Saharan Africa: the red-billed (Buphagus erythrorhynus) and yellow-billed oxpeckers (Buphagus africana). The red-billed species is smaller, with a scissor-like bill, while the yellow-billed species is larger, behaviourally dominant, and has a broad, flat beak (Attwell, 1966; Neweklowsky, 1974; Stutterheim, Bezuidenhout, & Elliott, 1988). These behavioural and morphological attributes are hypothesized to contribute

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Oxpecker (Buphagus erythrorhynchus, Buphagus africanus) and tick abundances in acaricide‐treated livestock areas

Since the introduction of acaricides a century ago, their widespread use has enhanced cattle production throughout the world by controlling tick infestations on domestic livestock. Early arsenical and organochlorine acaricides improved overall cattle health but were toxic to oxpeckers (Buphagus spp.), birds endemic to sub‐Saharan Africa which eat ticks on domestic and wild ungulates (Stutterheim, 1982; Stutterheim & Brooke, 1981). Following the introduction of these acaricides, oxpecker populations declined significantly, though this trend was reversed as target‐specific acaricides increased in use

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Factors influencing host selection by yellow-billed oxpeckers at Matobo National Park, Zimbabwe

Oxpecker host selection appears to be governed by an array of factors affecting the efficiency of foraging for ticks, with optimally foraging oxpeckers choosing those hosts that maximize tick intake and/or minimize search time. We studied yellow-billed oxpeckers Buphagus africanus (Linnaeus) at Matobo National Park, Zimbabwe, in order to examine the relationship between host selection and seasonal tick abundance, host characteristics and water availability. Preference ranks were highly correlated between the dry and wet seasons, implying that relative tick burdens of

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The Luangwa Valley Giraffe

Observations by the author on Giraffa camelopardalis thornicrofti between 1963 and 1969 are supplemented by other data. Its distribution in recent years has extended northwards as far as 11*50′ South on the east bank of the Luangwa River and its number have increased on the west bank in placed previously sparsely inhabited. It is difficult to estimate the total population but there may be 270 — 300 and possibly more as they are believed to be increasing. Calving probably takes

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