Photo: Ants, Acacias Break Truce When Wildlife Threat Drops

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Ants tend other insects on an acacia tree after large, leaf-eating mammals have been taken out of the picture in this undated photograph provided by the journal Science.

The mutually beneficial relationship of the tree and the biting ants breaks down when the larger animals are no longer a menace, partly because the ants increase their tending of parasitic scale insects, such as these pictured.

Photograph by Todd Palmer/Science/AP

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