The Parasitic Dance of Sacculina and Shore Crabs

Be it a pair of wolves that mate for life, a pod of female dolphins that hunt together, or a large colony of honeybees all working together in a hive, the natural world is filled with relationships of all kinds. But some relationships run deeper than others, even to the extent that certain species literally make their homes inside the bodies of others. This is an example of a symbiotic relationship – a long-term bond that exists between organisms of different species.

In this episode, we speak to science writer Sophie Pavelle about her new book To Have or to Hold: Nature’s Hidden Relationships.

She tells us how far from being rare, symbiotic relationships occur practically everywhere in the natural world, how they come in a dizzying array of different forms, and how the fine balance underpinning these relationships that has formed over thousands of years is coming under threat from human activity and climate change.

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