Friendships Between Animal Species

Animals can be more than just our friends. They’re beings that have feeling and are able to get along with other beings, regardless of their breed or species. Throughout history, there have been several cases of friendships between animals of different species. Today in this article you can look at some of the most surprising animal friendships.

Friendships Between Animal Species

Despite the popular notions that cats and dogs are enemies, or cats and rodents don’t either get along, well that’s not necessarily true. Within households, you can often see that animals from different species live together can be great friends and allies. Amazingly, this can also be seen in nature. 

There are solitary animals that don’t like to live in groups, but at the same time, there are others that are especially friendly to establish relationships with animals from another species.

What differentiates friendship from survival is that none of the animals benefit from these relationships, other than having the other animal’s company. 

Dogs are docile and kind beings that can make friends with almost any other animal. However, on the list below, there are many other animal species that do this as well. Some may even surprise you.

Gerald and Eddie

Gerald is a giraffe and Eddie is a goat. Gerald had been left alone in his enclosure at the Bristol Zoo and the caretakers thought he needed some company. That’s how he met Eddie because the caregivers decided to put them together because they thought they’d get along for some reason.

“They were friends from the first day,” say those responsible for putting the two together. Since then, and for several years, they lived together. It was one of the longer lasting relationships between animal species. They chased each other around, shared food and when one of the zebras was being mean to Eddie, Gerald used his height to scare him off. 

Moses and Cassie

In 1999, a couple noticed something strange that was happening on their street: a stray kitten named Cassie was friends with a crow, Moses. They watched them for a while and realized that Moses was taking care of Cassie.

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Moses not only offered her company, but he also gave her food, helped her hunt and even protected her. Crows are very intelligent animals, but it was surprising to see such an intelligent bird at that time. Moses and Cassie had a friendship that lasted for almost five years.

Daisy and Frank

Daisy’s owners live in Washington and wanted to decorate their backyard with a pond. They put several types of fish in the pond, including a Koi named Frank. The couple’s dogs didn’t pay attention to the new inhabitants, but Daisy did.

“Daisy started to get closer to the pond and, every time she did, Frank would come out of the water. (…) Daisy didn’t pay attention to the other fish and, if Frank was far away, he would swim up to Daisy,” said Daisy’s owners. They also added, “Daisy would lick Frank and Frank gives her a fish kiss. They just kept on kissing each other.”

Fum and Gebra

Fum is a black kitten who is very friendly to humans and other animals. However, Gebra the owl is suspicious of humans and other animals.

Both live in Catalonia and, when Gebra goes on his daily flights with his falconry, Fum hangs out with them. This special cat is the only friend the owl has accepted.

However, this animal friendship is not exclusive. Sometimes, Fum prefers to spend the day hunting and will find Gebra later at the end of the day. When they do decide to spend the day together, they can be found playing, climbing and hunting together.

Friendships between animal species are special, and each one came to be through different circumstances. Moses and Cassie decided to live together, while Gerald and Eddie were forced to live together. However, those who reported on these cases all said the same thing:

Animals are capable of being friends despite all their differences: size, color, habitat, and even diet. In spite of this, they have relationships that last for years. Plus, they are full of companionship and understanding.

Humans should learn from animals in order to solve their differences and live in harmony.