Scratch My Back and I'll Scratch Yours

When someone you know helps you out it's nice to return the favour. Even if it's just helping someone out with revision for an exam or telling them the information they may have missed in a lecture, doing this can then help me revise and I benefit. As a university student this occurs all of the time. This then lead me to wonder about mutualistic behaviours in the wild and the ways in which other species benefit. Within the Neotropics the Poison Dart Frog uses holds an interesting mutualistic relationship with different species of Bromeliad plants (they kind of look like the top of a pineapple). The Neotropics as you can imagine is largely exposed to high levels of rainfall, the water from this intense hydration will sit the folds and dips of the Bromeliad leaf structure. The Poison Dart Frog will then use this presence of water as a safe house for their young. Their tadpole young mature in these pools of water and benefit from the protection of the dense leaf structure. So where is the benefit to the plant, you might think? Well the nutrient waste produced by both the young frog and its mother are absorbed through the pool of water. So without directly knowing it frog’s presence benefits the Bromeliads growth. It's as if it's a way of saying thank you to the Bromeliad for protecting the frog’s young and providing a home. Let's hope we continue to help each other whether we also benefit or not.