Page 47 - Mammal (DK Eyewitness)

DUST BATH
Some mammals, such as elephants, use the “dry-shampoo”
technique, also employed by many birds to keep their feathers in
tip-top condition. This is the dust bath, where dust is kicked or
thrown onto the body and then rubbed and scratched and
shaken, to dislodge dirt and loosen clinging parasites. The
chinchilla maintains its luxurious fur in this way, there being
plenty of dust in the rocky Andes Mountains of South America.
Time and energy spent grooming
is worth it: the fur protects
the chinchilla from the
Long, deep fur bitter mountain cold
and wind.

Chinchillas rolling in dust bath

The underparts, which rub
the ground and pick up Rat bends double to
dirt, are cleaned by the clean its underside
mouth and front
paws (compare
the cat’s
method of
grooming
on the
next
page)

HELPFUL FRIEND
Creases in the rhino’s thick skin are ideal hideaways
for ticks and other parasites. The tickbird helps its
huge host by picking out and eating the parasites. The
bird gets a meal, the rhino receives a cleanup - a
biological relationship called symbiosis.

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