![image of a rhinoceros image of a rhinoceros](https://www.sa-venues.com/wildlife/graphics/rhino/18.jpg)
To figure out more about their relationship, they studied the preferences oxpeckers seem to have for their host animals. That means, wrote a group of researchers in a 2011 study published in the journal Evolution, that the oxpecker can also be viewed as a parasite to their larger hosts as well as a helper. While it is true that oxpeckers do eat bugs, they also eat rhinos, and zebras and giraffes, and whatever other large animals they can hang out with.
![image of a rhinoceros image of a rhinoceros](https://media.sciencephoto.com/image/c0103934/800wm/C0103934-Brontops_prehistoric_rhino,_artwork.jpg)
However, the relationship isn’t one of total simplicity: though they rid animals of pests, “oxpeckers also take blood from the sores, which may be slow to heal,” writes the encyclopedia. The oxpecker (there are actually two species, one that has a red bill and one that has a yellow bill) does more than just clean bugs for big game animals, writes Encyclopedia Britannica: the birds also hiss loudly when they spot danger, providing a sort of secondary warning system to their larger hosts. As if the endangered species of sub-Saharan Africa didn't have enough to worry about. Not so fast–those oxpeckers are washing the bugs down with a healthy helping of blood. The adorable oxpecker, perched on the back of a rhinoceros or zebra, happily having lunch while ridding its ride of pesky ticks, flies and other bugs. You’ve seen it: a peaceful image of interspecies togetherness. Oxpeckers hang out with large ungulates–animals with hoofs like rhinos, giraffes and water buffalo.