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An African bird called the greater honeyguide is famous for leading people to honey, and a new study shows that the birds listen for certain human calls to figure out who wants to play follow-the-leader.
The finding underscores the unique relationship that exists between humans and this wild bird.
"They're definitely not domesticated, and they're in no way coerced," says Claire Spottiswoode of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. "And they're not taught in any conventional way as well. Humans are not deliberately going out there and training honeyguides."
She first heard of the honeyguide as an 11-year-old child in Cape Town, South Africa, where she went to a meeting of her local bird club and heard a lecture from the pioneer of honeyguide studies, a scientist named H.A. Isack.
In 1989, he published a rigorous analysis in the journal Science showing that the legends about the honeyguide were true: The birds will flutter in front of people, tweet, and fly from tree to tree to guide hunters to bees' nests that are hidden inside the trunks of hollow trees.
"By following honeyguides, human honey hunters can really increase their rate of finding bees' nests," says Spottiswoode.
An abstract is available; full article is paywalled.
(Score: 3, Funny) by edIII on Sunday July 24 2016, @03:40AM
Then leads me to pantry door with the treats.....
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Monday July 25 2016, @04:49PM
My cat once thought I needed a break from the laptop, so she carefully took the hand in her mouth and forcefully moved it away from the trackpad. Her attempts at playing with the hand in other occasions were totally different.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Sunday July 24 2016, @01:31PM
Few comments, but a rather interesting article - thanks for posting!
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Sunday July 24 2016, @02:16PM
After hunters subdued the bees with smoke and hacked open the tree to harvest the honey, the birds ate the discarded beeswax — their favorite food.
those are some clever little birds. :D
(Score: 4, Informative) by Fluffeh on Sunday July 24 2016, @10:22PM
As soon as I started reading, I was wondering what the bird got from this potentially dangerous behaviour (bird being all friendly with humans and the like) - luckily the article has this covered:
The idea of a wild bird communicating with people in this way seemed almost magical to Spottiswoode. And, she learned, the birds got something, too. After hunters subdued the bees with smoke and hacked open the tree to harvest the honey, the birds ate the discarded beeswax — their favorite food.