David Hall / Yellow prawn-goby (Cryptocentrus cinctus) and Snapping shrimp (Alpheus sp). Mutualistic symbiosis with goby as watchdog and shrimp maintaining burrow. Komodo, Indonesia.

David Hall / Arcfin shrimpgoby (Amblyeleotris arcupinna) and Snapping shrimp (Alpheus sp), blind shrimp maintaining contact with goby via antenna. Mutualism with shrimp maintaining burrow and goby acting as lookou...

John Chan / Female Black-necked stilt (Himantopus mexicanus) maintaining nest site in salt marsh, Southern California, USA.

SCOTLAND: The Big Picture / Repair to footpath damage caused by erosion, Cairngorms National Park, Scotland, UK.November

SCOTLAND: The Big Picture / Repair to footpath damage caused by erosion, Cairngorms National Park, Scotland, UK.November

SCOTLAND: The Big Picture / Repair to footpath damage caused by erosion, Cairngorms National Park, Scotland, UK.November

David Fleetham / Steinitz' prawn / shrimp goby (Amblyeleotris steinitzi) and Alpheid worker shrimp (Alpheus sp) side by side. Mutualism occurs between the two species, the blind shrimp maintaining the shared burro...

Tony Wu / Jawfish (Opistognathus sp.) spitting out sand and stones to maintain its burrow. Lembeh Strait, Celebes Sea, North Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Frederique Olivier / Light-mantled sooty albatross (Phoebetria palpebrata) maintaining its nest, Macquarie Island, Sub-Antarctic Australia.

Frederique Olivier / Light-mantled sooty albatross (Phoebetria palpebrata) maintaining its nest, Macquarie Island, Sub-Antarctic Australia.

Gary K. Smith / Maintenance barge repairing mooring posts on Grand Canal, Venice, Italy.

Gary K. Smith / Maintenance barge repairing mooring posts on Grand Canal, Venice, Italy.

Gary K. Smith / Maintenance barge with crane and replacement mooring posts, Venice, Italy.

Gary K. Smith / Boat repair yard, Venice, Italy, April.

Tony Wu / Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) shed and slough off skin continuously, perhaps as a mechanism for maintaining healthy skin and shedding parasites. This is a large piece of skin that came off an...

Steve O. Taylor (GHF) / Man repairing nets, Gunung Palung National Park, West Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. July 2010.

Alex Mustard / Common reef / day octopuses (Octopus cyanea) courting. The male, on the right, is rearing up and showing his mouth and tentacles, while still maintaining contact with the female. This is a rarely seen...

Nick Garbutt / Stingless Bees (Trigona sp., Apidae: Meliponini) maintaining the entrance to their nest. Lowland rainforest, Maliau Basin, Sabah's 'Lost World', Borneo.

Juergen Freund / Man checking and maintaining the lines in his seaweed farm. Plastic water bottles act as floats. Malaysia, June 2009.

Juergen Freund / Seaweed farmer maintaining his seaweed farm. Small family farms are successful as farmers work hard to protect their crops from grazing fish, feeding turtles and sea urchins, and bacterial infections...

Kim Taylor / Phantom Midge (Chaoborus crystallinus) larva hangs motionless in the water with the aid of air bubbles fore and aft, maintaining its body in the horizontal position. Surrey, UK

Chris Newbert / Jawfish (Opisthognathidae) maintaining burrow, 80 feet deep, Solomon Islands

Chris Newbert / Jawfish (Opisthognathidae) maintaining burrow, 80 feet deep, Solomon Islands

Toby Sinclair / Taj Mahal with men maintaining the water features, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India

Mark Moffett / Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) workers maintaining hive, complex social behavior centers on maintaining the queen for a full life span of two to three years

Sebastian Kennerknecht / Excavator maintaining urban wetland, Diyasaru Park, Colombo, Sri Lanka

Paul D Stewart / Portrait of Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon. French naturalist (7 September 1707 - 16th April 1788). Steel engraving 1833 by Robert Hart with later colouring, from the painting by F.H. Drouais...

Mark Moffett / Researchers' military escort gets ice from bus while maintaining high speed, near the Afghan border, Iran

Ashley Cooper / Stone slabs used for repair work, piled up along the extremely popular Three Peaks footpath, Ingleborough, Yorkshire Dales National park, Yorkshire, UK. April, 2021.

Etienne Littlefair / Satin bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus), maintaining his bower, Ravenshow, North Queensland, Australia, October.

Milan Radisics / Bulldozer maintaining wall of an ash pond, East-Central Europe. After coal is burned in power plants, the waste ash is mixed with water and pumped through pipelines into sludgy lagoons commonly known...

Milan Radisics / Bulldozer maintaining shore of the high dam covered with trees. Red mud deposits, alkaline waste product from aluminium industry. Galicia, Northern Spain.

Tui De Roy / Alcedo giant tortoise (Chelonoidis vandenburghi), Alcedo Volcano, Isabela Island. This is where the largest extant population exists, acting as ecosystem engineers by maintaining open meadows and digg...

Tui De Roy / Alcedo giant tortoises (Chelonoidis vandenburghi) wallowing, Alcedo Volcano, Isabela Island. This is where the largest population still exists, acting as ecosystem engineers by maintaining open meadow...

Shane Gross / Banded jawfish (Opistognathus macrognathus) maintaining his burrow off Man Island, Eleuthera, Bahamas.