Unexpected Animal Partnership Discovered in the Amazon

by Kristina Nienhaus, Bielefeld University
June 26, 2025

Solitary animals roaming the nocturnal jungle together – what sounds like a scene from a fairytale has now been scientifically documented. In their study titled “Beyond predator and prey: first evidence of an association between ocelot and opossum individuals”, a research team led by behavioral ecologists at Bielefeld University in collaboration with researchers from ETH in Zurich describes for the first time a puzzling relationship between two very different species: the ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) and the common opossum (Didelphis marsupialis). The study has now been published in the journal Ecosphere.

Keep reading: https://aktuell.uni-bielefeld.de/2025/06/26/unexpected-animal-partnership-discovered-in-the-amazon/?lang=en

Read the Ecosphere paper: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecs2.70322