Karl Gruber : ABC Science : 22 Jul 2016
Over thousands of years, honey hunters in northern Mozambique have forged a relationship with wild birds to find the location of bees' nests. But not only do humans seek out the small birds known as honeyguides, the birds also actively seek out humans ensuring both species benefit, a new study shows.
Pioneering work by the Kenyan ecologist Hussein Isack in the 1980s confirmed honeyguides communicate reliable information to humans about the location of bees' nests, and this greatly increased honey-hunters' harvests, said the study's lead author Dr Claire Spottiswoode of the University of Cambridge in the UK and the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
In return, the greater honeyguide (Indicator indicator), which feeds from bees' nests, eating eggs, larvae and beeswax, relies on their human partner to crack open the hive. "It's a remarkable example of co-operation between humans and a free-living wild animal," Dr Spottiswoode said.
But in a new study of the Yao honey hunters from Mozambique's Niassa National Reserve, published today in Science, Dr Spottiswoode and her colleagues show the interaction has an extra dimension. Not only do the Yao honey hunters follow the birds' call to guide them to the hive, the birds themselves seek out the specific call made by the hunters to initiate the hunt. "Yao honey hunters searching for honeyguides, or wanting to maintain a honeyguide's attention as they follow it through the bush, give at intervals a loud trill followed by a grunt — 'brrrr-hm!'," Dr Spottiswoode said. "They make this sound only in this context, so it's a reliable signal to honeyguides that a human is looking for bees."
In return, the greater honeyguide (Indicator indicator), which feeds from bees' nests, eating eggs, larvae and beeswax, relies on their human partner to crack open the hive. "It's a remarkable example of co-operation between humans and a free-living wild animal," Dr Spottiswoode said.
But in a new study of the Yao honey hunters from Mozambique's Niassa National Reserve, published today in Science, Dr Spottiswoode and her colleagues show the interaction has an extra dimension. Not only do the Yao honey hunters follow the birds' call to guide them to the hive, the birds themselves seek out the specific call made by the hunters to initiate the hunt. "Yao honey hunters searching for honeyguides, or wanting to maintain a honeyguide's attention as they follow it through the bush, give at intervals a loud trill followed by a grunt — 'brrrr-hm!'," Dr Spottiswoode said. "They make this sound only in this context, so it's a reliable signal to honeyguides that a human is looking for bees."
 © Claire N. Spottiswoode The relationship between Yao's honey hunters and honeyguide birds is a rare example of humans and wild birds cooperating. |  © Claire N Spottiswoode Part of the honey harvest from a wild bees' nest in the Niassa National Park in Mozambique. |
The whole story can be read here.
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