Reciprocal signaling in honeyguide-human mutualism

2016/07/22 by Claire N. Spottiswoode, Keith S. Begg, Colleen Begg · 2 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Plant and animal studies #Animal Behavior and Reproduction #Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior

paper · doi:10.1126/science.aaf4885

openalex publication_date 2016/07/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

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.

Citations

• The Fallacy, Fact, and Fate of Guiding Behavior in the Greater Honeyguide
• The package “adehabitat” for the R software: A tool for the analysis of space and habitat use by animals
• Honeyguides and Honey Gatherers: Interspecific Communication in a Symbiotic Relationship
• Time for some a priori thinking about post hoc testing
• The unequal variance t-test is an underused alternative to Student's t-test and the Mann–Whitney U test
• The Honey-guides

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