Sometimes animals gain benefits other than food from a relationship with another animal or a plant.

In Africa birds called ox-peckers perch on the backs of large animals such as giraffes and cattle, and 'groom' them by removing tiresome insects. The ox-peckers also give warning of the approach of danger through their cries and disturbed flight.

One animal sometimes provides a home for another; there are, for example, defenceless fish that live unharmed amongst the stinging tentacles of jellyfish, and birds such as the wheatear sometimes nest in rabbit burrows.

Many flowering plants are pollinated by insects (pollination is the transfer of the powdery pollen grains from one part of a flower to another, or sometimes to a different flower, so that seeds may form). Some flowers are shaped to suit a particular insect. When a bumblebee alights on a white dead nettle and pushes its head into the flower in search of nectar, the pollen is smeared on to the bumblebee's back.

Seeds, once formed, may also be distributed by animals. Where the seed is surrounded by fleshy material (as in the case of hips and haws) birds eat and transport them. The burrs on plants such as burdock have hooks that may catch on to fur and feathers.