But this was not a case of symbiosis I’d heard about before, nor one that had an obvious explanation. It was truly a bizarre assemblage of “friends.” Our dive group—on assignment for National Geographic magazine, and including photographers David Doubilet and Jennifer Hayes—had been exploring this site for days, and we’d all seen the puffer fish before. He (I’m guessing the animal’s sex) was an old specimen, a tattered softball of a fish. He was always alone, lolling about on the sea floor or moving slowly through the shallows. Oddly tame, he let me approach to within inches and swim alongside him. The manic vibrations of his tiny fins propelled the bulbous fish forward, one eye twitching quick looks my way.
One afternoon as I came off the edge of the reef, I saw my friend the puffer—but this time he wasn’t alone. He had found his way to the very middle of a shoal of fish utterly unlike himself. They were sweetlips, a colorful, wide-mouthed type of grunt that schools in large numbers in sunny, shallow waters. The aged puffer, a scruffy blight on their collective loveliness, was hanging out among them as if he belonged, and the sweetlips seemed oblivious to the invader. The fish hung in the water as if attached to the strings of a mobile, rising and falling in sync at the whim of the currents. The puffer looked absurd yet strangely regal in his place at center, a halo of yellow beauties surrounding his bloated, kingly form.
It wasn’t a fluke. The odd cluster was there again later, and the next day as well. The interspecies group was the welcoming party as we arrived on the reef and the well-wishers as we departed. It was a delightful scene.
What interest this giant puffer fish had in the sweetlips, I can only guess. My best “biologically correct” explanation: Both species love a good cleaning, and cleaner wrasses—small fish that pick old skin and parasites off larger fish—are commonly found where sweetlips gather; they’re invited to enter the fishes’ wide-open mouths to nibble at the leftovers there. Perhaps the puffer realized that to get access to the best cleaning station, he would have to join the crowd. And once he’d found his way to center stage and was accepted there, he simply stuck around.
But there’s a more fun explanation, one that would no doubt make any scientist balk. Let’s say that by surrounding himself with all that color and beauty, the old puffer gave his sour mood a boost, buoying his lonesome self to that happy place where the best friendships are made.
References
PUBLICATIONS AND FILMS
“Assignment America,” CBS Evening News, January 2, 2009.
Badham, M. and N. Evans. Molly’s Zoo. Simon & Schuster, 2000.
Bekoff, M. The Emotional Lives of Animals. New World Library, 2007.
Bolhuis, J. J. “Selfless memes.” Science 20, Nov. 2009, p. 1063.
California Fire Data: http://bof.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_stats
De Waal, F. Good Natured. Harvard University Press, 1996.
Douglas-Hamilton, D., producer. Heart of a Lioness. Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, 2005.
Feuerstein, N. and J. Terkel. “Interrelationships of dogs (Canis familiaris) and cats (Felis catus L.) living under the same roof.” Applied Animal Behavior Science 10 (2007).
Goodall, J. Interview with Doug Chadwick for National Geographic, 2009, and personal communication, June 2010.
Hatkoff, I., C. Hatkoff, and P. Kahumbu. Owen & Mzee: The Language of Friend- ship. Scholastic Press, 2007, and personal communication.
Kendrick, K., A. P. da Costa, A. E. Leigh, et al. November 2001. “Sheep Don’t Forget a Face.” Nature, 414:165.
Kerby, J. The Pink Puppy: A True Story of a Mother’s Love. Wasteland Press, 2008, and personal communication.
King, B. Being with Animals. Doubleday, 2010, and personal communication.
Laron, K. and M. Nethery, Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship, and Survival. Walker & Co., 2008.
Linden, E. The Parrot’s Lament. Plume, 1999.
Maxwell, L. “Weasel Your Way into My Heart.” The Humane Society of the United States (website), 2010, and personal communication.
Morell, V. and J. Holland. “Animal Minds.” National Geographic, 213:3, 2008. Nicklen, P. Polar Obsession (National Geographic Society, 2009) and personal communication.
Patterson, F. Koko’s Kitten. The Gorilla Foundation, 1985.
There’s a Rhino in My House (film). Animal Planet, 2009.
Vessels, J. “Koko’s Kitten.” National Geographic, 167:1, 1985.
SELECT WEB SOURCES
Animal Liberation Front (animalliberationfront.com)
Best Friends Animal Society (bestfriends.org)
Cute Overload (cuteoverload.com)
Interspecies Friends (interspeciesfriends.blogspot.com)
Mail Online (dailymail.co.uk)
Rat Behavior and Biology (ratbehavior.org)
SELECT ADDITIONAL READING ON ANIMAL EMOTIONS AND BEHAVIOR
Balcombe, J. Second Nature. Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
Bekoff, M. Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals. University of Chicago Press, 2010.
De Waal, F. The Age of Empathy. Harmony Books, 2009.
Goodall, J. and R. Wrangham. In the Shadow of Man. Harper Collins, 1971, and Mariner Books, 2010.
Hatkoff, A. The Inner World of Farm Animals. Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2009.
Hauser, M. D. Wild Minds. Henry Holt and Co., 2000.
Masson, J. M. and S. McCarthy. When Elephants Weep. Delacorte Press, 1995.
Page, G. Inside the Animal Mind. Doubleday, 1999.
Acknowledgments
This project was very much a collaborative effort, as there would be no stories were it not for the storytellers. They were pet owners, zookeepers, animal rescuers, photographers, biologists, and other animal lovers who witnessed interspecies interactions, realized the moments were special, and were willing to share what they saw. My deepest thanks to the kind people, many of them quoted in these texts, who patiently provided information and images to make the collection possible.
I am also extremely grateful to the staff at Workman Publishing, especially Raquel Jaramillo for seeking me out to do this project and kindly praising the result, Beth Levy for shepherding the manuscript through copyediting and proofreading, and Melissa Lucier for her tireless efforts tracking down photographs all around the world.
Finally, I thank my family, friends, and colleagues who helped along the way. They include but are not limited to:
• Lynne Warren, for kindly editing the first messy draft
• Melanie Costello, for keeping me organized and confident
• Penny Bernstein, for endless ideas and support
• Mari Parker and Chen Yiqing, for translations
• Lorie Holland, for enthusiastic promotion and sales advice
• My husband, John, for tolerating the ups and downs and my obsessive reading aloud
• My niece and nephews for giving me the best reasons of all to tell these tales
• My much-adored mother, for passing on her love of animals to me.
Table of Contents
I NTRODUCTION
The African Elephant and the Sheep
The Asiatic Black Bear and the Black Cat
The Bobcat Kitten and the Fawn
The Bobtailed Dog and the Bobtailed Cat
The Cheetahs and the Anatolian Shepherds
The Cockatoo and the Cat
The Dachshund and the Piglet
The Diver and the Manta Ray
The Donkey and the Mutt
The Duckling and the Kookaburra
The Elephant and the Stray Dog
The Ferrets and the Big Dogs
The Golden Retriever and the Koi
The Gorilla and the Kitten
The Hippopotamus and the Pygmy Goat
The Iguana and the House Cats
The Leopard and the Cow
The Lion Cub and the Caracal Siblings
The Lion, the Tiger, and the Bear
The Lioness and the Baby Oryx
The Macaque and the Dove
The Macaque and the Kitten
The Mare and the Fawn
The Monkeys and the Capybaras
The Mouflon and the Eland
The Nearsighted Deer and the Poodle
The Orangutan and the Kitten
The Orangutan Babies and the Tiger Cubs
The Owl and the Spaniel
The Owlet and the Greyhound
The Papillon and the Squirrel
The Photographer and the Leopard Seal
The Pit Bull, the Siamese Cat, and the Chicks
The Potbellied Piglet and the Rhodesian Ridgeback
The Rabbit and the Guinea Pig
The Rat and the Cat
The Red Pandas and the Mothering Mutt
The Rhinoceros, the Warthog, and the Hyena
The Rottweiler and the Wolf Pup
The Salty Dog and the Dolphins
The Seeing-Eye Cat and the Blind Mutt
The Sled Dog and the Polar Bear
The Snake and the Hamster
The Tortoise and the Hippo
The White Rhino and the Billy Goat
The Zebra and the Gazelle
A FTERWORD
T HE A UTHOR, THE S WEETLIPS, AND THE P UFFER F ISH
R EFERENCES
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
Unlikely Friendships Page 10