Here is a link to the Stated Clearly video, I recommend watching it first: I recently created an animation for Stated Clearly called "What is Symbiosis?" that gives a bunch of examples of symbiosis in nature, including the crazy relationship between squirrels and oak trees. Seriously, it's crazy, even more crazy than I could show there, so I talk more about it here.
Support my work on Patreon... if you want:
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SQUIRRELS VS TREES: EVOLUTIONARY ARMS RACE
How plants manipulate the scatter-hoarding behavior of seed-dispersing animals:
Evolutionary interactions between tree squirrels and trees: A review and synthesis:
Can acorn tannin predict scrub-jay cashing behavior:
TICKS AND OPOSSUMS
Individual opossums can kill and eat over 5,000 ticks per week during during tick larval activity peaks in the state of New York:
New York Times Overview of the research linked above (note, in this article they say 5,000 per season, but the paper itself says 5,000 per week during tick larval season which can last up to 2 months)
CHOLERA EVOLVE TOWARD COMMENSALISM
Paper on the evolution of virulence:
TED talk by Paul Ewald, outlining his work on Cholera "Can we domesticate germs?":
==== NOTE ====
The claim that caching acorns allows rainwater to leach out the tannins was confirmed by one study (the blue-jay paper above), but results failed to be duplicated in a followup study.
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