just ask the fish, dolphins, birds and butterflies who rely on other species for help with food, protection from prey and even parasite removal.
A new review of the behaviors of animals who engage in interspecies cooperation, a type of behavior where animals from different species work together for mutual benefit, shows that the information exchanged through cues and signals play an important role in this unique kind of teamwork.
Researchers reviewed a dozen documented types of interspecies cooperation, ranging from fish that clean other fishes to ants that guard butterfly larvae and humans who work with honeyguide birds to find bee nests. They found a striking commonality across many of these interactions.
"We found that communication through cues and signals plays an important role in this relatively rare interaction; this helps animals work together in the moment," said Kyra Bankhead, a doctoral student at Oregon State University's Marine Mammal Institute and one of the study's co-authors.
"Animals can use sounds, movements or other signals to inform decisions about whether, when or how to cooperate with one another."
The findings were just published in the journal Animal Behavior. The work was led by Mauricio Cantor, a behavioral ecologist with OSU's Marine Mammal Institute; Katie Dunkley of the University of Oxford; Dominic Cram of the University of East Anglia; and Jessica van der Wal of the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Within-species cooperation is well-documented and widespread, but less is known about interspecies cooperation, where animals must communicate effectively across species boundaries while coordinating complementary actions.
"We often think of communication as something that happens between members of the same species, but many animals also exchange information with entirely different species to achieve shared goals," said Cantor, who has extensively studied the cooperative fishing behavior of dolphins and humans.
"These interactions remind us that cooperation is not limited to families, social groups or even members of the same species," he said. "Studying how animals communicate across species boundaries helps us understand how cooperation evolves, and more generally, how interactions between species help shape the natural world."
Animals tend to cooperate across species boundaries in a few areas: cooperative foraging or hunting, where animals work together to increase success; food-for-cleaning services, where a cleaner such as a fish or shrimp removes parasites from the bodies of "client" species, which aids the health of the client; food-for-protection services, where food is exchanged for protection from predators; and shelter-for-protection, where shelter is provided in exchange for predator protection services.
This new review of these behaviors clarifies the vital role communication plays in these interactions at three stages: identifying and/or attracting partners; initiating cooperation; and maximizing benefits of cooperation through coordination and preventing harm by one partner to the other.
For example, when humans and dolphins work together to find and collect fish, a dolphin gives the human a visual cue that discloses where the fish school is, indicating the right time and place to cast a fishing net, which aids the dolphin in catching its own fish as the net traps the fish.
While the new paper offers additional insights into interspecies communication, additional study is needed to better understand this behavior, the researchers said. Those questions include: how do naturally occurring cues and signals in interspecies cooperation compare to those in trained cooperative interactions, such as between humans and trained dogs, birds or other animals? And to what degree are these cues and signals learned or passed down through genetics?
"We still have many unanswered questions about this behavior, and hope this work will spur further research," Bankhead said.
