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El lobo y la presa no se ayudan mutuamente en el ecosistema.

El lobo y la presa no se ayudan mutuamente en el ecosistema.
The wolf and the prey do not help each other mutually in the ecosystem.
From Lesson 261:Reciprocal actions (el uno al otro)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about El lobo y la presa no se ayudan mutuamente en el ecosistema.

Why use mutuamente here when se ayudan already translates to "they help each other"?
The pronoun se can be reflexive (themselves) or reciprocal (each other). So, no se ayudan by itself could mean "they don't help themselves" or "they don't help each other." Adding mutuamente clears up this ambiguity, making it completely clear that the action is reciprocal.
Could I use el uno al otro instead of mutuamente here?
Yes, absolutely! You could say no se ayudan el uno al otro. Both mutuamente and el uno al otro do the exact same job: they clarify that the action happens between the two subjects rather than to themselves.
If the specific prey animal is male, would it become el preso?
No, la presa is a grammatically feminine word that always stays feminine, no matter the biological sex of the animal. (El preso is a real word, but it means "the male prisoner"!)
Why is the word no placed before se?
In Spanish, the negative word no must always go before the object pronoun (se) and the conjugated verb (ayudan). You can never put no between the pronoun and the verb.

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