Symbiotic Relationshsips

[Zachthemac]

I live in a neighborhood with a fenced off lake in the middle with tons of geese, ducks, turtles and 2 goats. I have always thought of symbiosis as something you see on a documentary of the African Savana or on the clownfish and the anemone that defends it, but not up close in Suburbia. Anyway, there is 1 Pilgrim Goose that always stays with the goats and eats insects from their fur. The goat benefits by getting rid of its pests, and the goose gets a meal. Plus, when you go up to the goat, it backs away and the goose steps in front of it and hisses as if to protect it. I don't know if this is actually a symbiotic relationship, but it is pretty interesting to see how animals of different interact. What animal relationships have you seen between different species?

[MrMistery]

I do not think that is simbiosis. It is simply a mutualist relationship between the 2. But the deffinition of symbiosis is pretty vague so you could consider it that

[Inuyasha]

yeah, but mutualisitc realtionships are symbiotic. Aren't they?

[Zachthemac]

I agree with Inuyasha. I'm pretty sure a mutualistic relationship is a symbiotic relationship in which both organisms benefit.

[Poison]

Andrew must have remembered wrong. Yes, mutualism is a kind of symbiosis.

[MrMistery]

Ok guys, this problem is not as easy as you might think. What you are thinking about are interspecies relations. They can be of many types: mutualism(++), neutralism(00), competition(--), parazitism(+-), comensalism(+0), hunting(+-) and amensalism(-0). Now both parazitism and hunting are a form of relation where one species benefits and the other loses(+-) but only parazitism is symbiosis. Competition is also not symbiosis. In the case of mutualism, in some cases we are dealing with simbyosis and in some cases we are not. If i only have nuts and you only have apples and we trade we both have a balanced diet. So this is a form of mutualism but it is deffinetly not symbiosis. Where the border is, i do not know, nor does anybody else

[Poison]

We learned mutualism is a kind of symbiotic relationship. Maybe professors are wrong. I don't know...

[mith]

I've always learned that symbiosis was the close association of 2 or more organisms, which could mean commensalism, mutualism and parasitism.

[victor]

I agree with Andrew..because we can't see all the relationships between organisms can be considered into symbiosis. but I'm a little bit disagree with hunting relationships. I can say that it's a symbiosis which that we know as a predation symbiosis. what do you think?

[Poison]

this link may help us...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbiosis

[MrMistery]

There is such a thing as a mutualist symbiosis. Actually some (not very bright) teacher restrict the term symbiosis to this mutualist symbiosis. But simbyosis comes from latin "living together" and is generally used for species that have a physiscal contact- like that page on weekepedia said: andosymbiosis or ectosymbiosis. Ectosymbiosis is defined as one organsim living on the surface of the other or in it's digestive tract.
Stop being the slaves of the system and think logically. Even if we are dealling with a very tight interspecial mutualist relation we can not call it symbiosis mainly because there is no permanent body contact between the 2.
On the other hand we can call it symbiosis because the goose is dependent for food.
As i said, the deffinition of symbiosis is vague. What you guys should remember from all this is that there are some mutualistic relations that can not be classified as symbiosis.

[+R@cY]

I've always been told that a symbiotic relationship was between 2 organisms or something like that. like...

Mutualism - Both organisms benefit
Parasitism - One organism benefits and the other is harmed
Commensalism - One benefits and the other is not afftected.