Interdependence
As in any ecosystem, each animal species in the Park has evolved with other species yet is adapted to its own unique niche. Each has a role to play in nature's constantly unfolding drama.
- Some animals live in social groups (lions, buffalos, vervet monkeys) while others live or breed in colonies (Gorongosa gerbils, Sundeval’s leaf-nosed bats, and many water birds).
- They are environmental engineers—hippos, for example, plow through marshes, accidentally carving channels for water to flow through.
- They maintain the long-term health of other populations--leopards cull old or sick animals from the herds, controlling their numbers, keeping ungulates fit and strong.
- They help each other, unintentionally--Nile crocodiles get free dental service when Egyptian plovers pick detritus from their gaping jaws.
- They exploit other species—emerald cuckoos sneak eggs into other birds’ nests to avoid the burdens of parenthood.
- They clean up the place: white-backed vultures feed on carcasses, dung beetles on excreta, and termites on dead plants.
Open this full-screen map to see the Gorongosa ecosystem. 
Read the blogs of staff scientists Bart Wursten and Petra Ballings. )){kind=link}