It has a curious symbiotic relationship with the tick bird. This relationship is really no more than a strengthening of the symbiosis that had developed between small birds and large grazing mammals during the early part of the Cenozoic. Birds on the grassy plains often accompanied the large mammals, catching the insects disturbed by their hooves, or pecking ticks and mites from the hides of the big mammals themselves. The grazing mammals tolerated this as the little birds rid them of parasites and also gave warning of approaching danger. In the case of the cleft-back antelope the relationship has become more intimate and the animal's back has ceased to be a mere perch and has become a nesting site. Along the animal's back is a pair of ridges, supported by outgrowths from the vetebrae. Bet
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