An Earful by Ken _Gilliland
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No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.
Description
The giraffe might be getting an earful of gossip, but the Red-billed Oxpecker is getting a mouthful of ticks. They eat over 1,500 a day, forming a symbiotic relationship with cattle, giraffes and white rhinos. It's cousin, the Yellow-billed Oxpecker is close to extinct in the wild due to civil war and host animals rapid decline.
Rendered in Poser 6. Model Credits: Giraffe (DAZ/Debra Ross), Red-billed Oxpecker (SBRM Africa-beta)(DAZ/Ken Gilliland), Millenium Environment
Comments (9)
Awww...how cute! Love that little guy! And I do wonder what secrets the bird is telling him?!
too cool. Love those giraffes. great image.
So true. Beautifuly done.
How cute=^_^=Great render!
Wonderful image! I realy love the closeup!
nice image, but as to the oxpecker, I heard quite a while back that they have found that the birds arn't eating ticks they are picking scabs. A zoo looked into it, they compared two groups of animals, one they allowed the birds to be in, the other they kept them out. There was no difference in the amount of parasites on the animals, but the group who the birds where kept away from had much more quickly healing scratches and scrapes. Sorry if it seems mean of me to argue, but please don't feel affended, because I'm only pointing out the facts. Libis
No, I'm not offended at all... I'm curious over the Zoo study though.... I read a report that said over 1,600 ticks were found in a red-billed Oxpecker belly in South Africa. (http://www.encounter.co.za/article/133.html)
I decided to do some more indepth research into the tick vs. scab questions and they appear to do both. There's an interesting paper at http://www.csun.edu/~dgray/BE528/Weeks2000oxpeckers.pdf
wtg ken i done mine with a rhino