© Claire N. SpottiswoodeYao honey hunter Orlando Yassene holds a female honeyguide bird.
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 cooperation 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.
© Claire N. SpottiswoodeYao honey-hunters searching for honeyguides in the Niassa National Reserve, Mozambique.
"They make this sound only in this context, so it's a reliable signal to honeyguides that a human is looking for bees."
Comment: See also: Grizzly bear attacks picnicking couple west of Calgary, Canada