Emma E. answered • 01/19/26
Bachelors of Science: Marine Biology, Full-time Wildlife Biologist
Nonsymbiotic commensalism occurs when one organism benefits and the other is unaffected, without a permanent physical association. An example is cattle egrets feeding on insects stirred up by grazing cattle, where the birds gain nutrients while the cows are neither helped or harmed. Nonsymbiotic parasitism occurs when one organism benefits at the expense of another without living permanently on or in the host. Examples include mosquitoes feeding on mammal blood or leeches temporarily attaching to fish, where the parasite gains nutrients while the host is harmed.
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