It's not everyday that we hear about the status quo in nature being challenged. We're comfortable with ideas of "the circle of life" and "survival of the fittest." But a new study from Dartmouth College published in the Journal of Mammalogy is making us scratch our heads: a predator partnering with a (potential) prey.

An Unlikely Animal Partnership

As reported in Phys.org http://phys.org/news/2015-06-wolves-hunters-monkeys.html the predator -- Ethiopian wolves -- and its possible prey -- gelada monkeys -- are at the heart of the story. Instead of a quick gelada monkey meal, the solitary wolves are opting for a rodent special; Ethiopian wolves are actually rodent specialists. And the easiest way to access the rodents is to hang out with the gelada monkeys, close relatives of baboons. …show more content…
A group of roughly 200 gelada monkeys had become habituated to the wolves presence. Most of the time (68 percent to be exact) the monkeys wouldn't even move around the wolves. Compare that to the 100 percent of the time the band fled when it encountered domestic dogs.

So how exactly did the Ethiopian wolves win the band's trust? Researchers believe that through constant non-threatening behavior, including the restraint to attack vulnerable gelada monkeys, the wolves won the monkeys over. And when 200ish monkeys start grazing, the rodents pop out and it's a rodent feast.

The solitary wolves are way better off with the band than without. In what may well be an adaptive strategy, the "Ethiopian wolves foraged successfully in 66.7 percent of attempts among the gelada monkeys v. a success rate of only 25 percent when wolves foraged by themselves." Although it's still not clear what the monkeys get out of all this -- possibly protection?

Threats to These Unlikely