African Forest Buffalo (Syncerus caffer nanus) and Yellow-billed Oxpecker (Buphagus africanus). The Yellow-billed Oxpecker nests in tree holes lined with hair plucked from livestock. It eats insects and ticks. In a day an adult will take more than 100 engorged female Boophilus decoloratus ticks or 13,000 larvae. However, their preferred food is blood, and while they may take ticks bloated with blood, they also feed on it directly, pecking at the mammal's wounds. So the good the bird does to the mammal may be negated by its keeping the wounds open to parasites and disease. African forest buffalo is the smallest subspecies of the African buffalo. Savannah area near Wilderness Lango camp, Odzala-Kokoua National Park, Mboko concession, Department of Cuvette-Quest, Republic of Congo.
