Big Friend, Little Friend: A Book About Symbiosis

by Susan Sussman, Robert James

Describes organisms that live together in mutual dependence, such as the African buffalo and the red-billed oxpecker, the protozoan and the honeyguide, the sea anemone and the boxing crab, and the acacia bush and the ant

30 pages, Library Binding

First published September 1, 1989

Reviews

[Chris Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you were looking for evidence to support the miracle of evolution, look no further. Big Friend, Little Friend provides many examples of animal symbiosis so specialized and intertwined that money of the organisms could not survive without their big or little "friend." A colony of red ants brings a caterpillar home and feeds it its larvae, which it needs to survive, in exchange for its sweet waste. It's tempting to anthropomorphize some of the relationships. When the Gobid eye fish guides the blind shrimp around the bottom of the red Sea, do they become friends while, throughout their lives, one helps locate food and the other digs a cave that they share for shelter? However the animals in this book feel about each other, they discovered a long time ago that it's easier to live together than apart.