Facultative cleaning of spiral-horned antelope by the African paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone viridis).

Abstract

In cleaning associations, individuals known as “cleaners” remove and feed on parasites and pests found on, or around, other animals known as “clients.” While best documented in marine environments and as mutualisms, cleaning associations are widespread in terrestrial systems and range along a spectrum of obligate to facultative associations. In African savannas, cleaning associations primarily comprise facultative interactions between mammals and birds that remove attached parasites. Few reports, however, exist on cleaning associations that involve the removal of unattached pests. In this short note, I report a novel facultative bird–ungulate cleaning association involving the removal of unattached pests, between the African paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone viridis) and two species of spiral‐horned antelope (Tragelaphus spp.): greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) and Cape bushbuck (Tragelaphus sylvaticus). On multiple occasions, I observed African paradise flycatchers hawking flying insects around greater kudu and a Cape bushbuck during the dry season at the Mpala Research Centre in Laikipia, Kenya. These observations document a rare feeding strategy for the African paradise flycatcher and are among the few records on cleaning interactions involving the removal of unattached pests.