Communication
between humans and domesticated animals is common. Regular
communication between humans and wild animals, however, is rare. African
honey-guide birds are known to regularly lead human honey-hunters to
bee colonies, and the humans, on opening up the nest, leave enough mess
for the birds to feast on. Spottiswoode et al. show that when
the honey-hunters make a specific call, honey-guides are both more
likely to come to their aid and more likely to find them a bee's nest.
This interaction suggests that the birds are able to attach a specific
meaning of cooperation to the human's call—a rare case of mutualism
between humans and a wild animal.
Science, this issue p. 387
Abstract
Greater honeyguides (Indicator indicator)
lead human honey-hunters to wild bees’ nests, in a rare example of a
mutualistic foraging partnership between humans and free-living wild
animals. We show experimentally that a specialized vocal sound made by
Mozambican honey-hunters seeking bees’ nests elicits elevated
cooperative behavior from honeyguides. The production of this sound
increased the probability of being guided by a honeyguide from about 33
to 66% and the overall probability of thus finding a bees’ nest from 17
to 54%, as compared with other animal or human sounds of similar
amplitude. These results provide experimental evidence that a wild
animal in a natural setting responds adaptively to a human signal of
cooperation
