And if so, are they unique to the animals they live on or is it pretty much the same as ours?

  • Strider@thelemmy.club
    0·
    14 days ago

    Some animals are big enough to just have fauna, nothing micro about them. See whale lice as an example.

    • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 @pawb.socialOPEnglish
      0·
      14 days ago

      I feel a bit silly now, not even thinking about symbiotic relationships between birds and things that the birds tend to perch upon. 🫣

      I didn’t even pose the last half of the question I initially had and now I am remembering that what prompted this post was wondering if humans being in contact with animals can be beneficial or harmful based on interactions between our body biomes.

      Though it has been somewhat answered with the answers relating to salmonella on lizards and leprosy on armadillos, so it at least goes one direction with what I was wondering. 😅

      • OceanSoap@lemmy.world
        0·
        14 days ago

        There was actually a dog who was having all these horrific skin issues, and they couldn’t figure out why until they finally discovered he was allergic to human skin shedding. He had to be moved to a shelter that let him run around with other dogs and he had low contact with humans .

  • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    14 days ago

    Oh hell yes.

    My favorite is the biome on the sloth. This isn’t even just a microbiome, we have moths and algae. You know how sloths go to ground to crap, even though it’s a lot of energy and really dangerous for the sloth? Well, there’s a moth that requires the sloths; Moth eggs are laid in sloth poo. Moths hatch, fly up to roost in sloth fur, carrying sloth poo. Sloth poo provides nutrients for the algae that grows on the sloth for the moths to eat. Sloth fur has notches that hold water and the nutrients for the algae to grow.

    Sloth goes back down to crap, moths lay eggs, fly up…

    • 1234@lemmy.world
      0·
      14 days ago

      Thanks for that, can I ask if there are any resources you would recommend for finding this type of content in a convenient format for children to consume? We do look at national geographic and documentaries from time to time, just thought I would ask in case there is an epic youtube (peertube??) channel with fun content you have come across.

  • Skyrmir@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    14 days ago

    There’s supposedly a fungus that only grows on the left antenna of one species of moth. So yes there are a lot of unique biomes.

      • sircac@lemmy.world
        0·
        12 days ago

        If I remember correctly is the same adaptation of this eye parasite of Greenland sharks, they only grow in one of the two sensors so the parasited animal is not terribly compromised and still can thrive enough to complete the life cycle of the parasite