Relationship status: It's complicated

By posing for us, are these red-billed oxpeckers imposing on this impala? Well, science hasn't quite decided on this one. The relationship between parasite-eating birds and hoofed mammals was once considered a textbook example of mutualism, with oxpeckers cleaning up the ticks and fleas that bug the bigger beasts. Which is what we'd like to think is going on here.
© Heini Wehrle/Minden Pictures