Honeyguide-Human Mutualism

Question 1

Why is honeyguide-human intercation mutualism?

Answer 1

Honeyguides lead humans to bee nests

Humans can subdue bee nests and open the nest which exposes honey for the humans and gives beeswax to the honeyguides

Rare mutualism between humans and a wild animal - also an example of reciprocal communication

Question 2

What is honeyguide behaviour?

Answer 2

Give loud chattering call ( audio given in paper) which is different to territoral song

The bird flies from tree to tree in direction of bee nest until human follower finds the nest

Question 3

How do humans signal to honeyguides about their presence?

Answer 3

Humans often announce presence by shouting or chopping wood - unspecialised sounds

Some areas humans produce specialised sounds used only when hunting honey

Question 4

What were the methods carried out for honeyguides?

Answer 4

Played 3 sounds up and down transects:

• Control sound - human sound (honeyhunters name etc)
• Control animal sound - song or excitement call from ring-tailed dove (honeyguides not found to guide any other species except humans)
• Specialised honeyhunting sound

Also tested effects of temperature and time of day

Question 5

What were the results for honeyguide experiment?

Answer 5

Transects accompanied by honeyhunting call had 2/3 probability of eliciting guiding from honeyguide

This was significantly greater than the ones that played human (25%) and animal (1/3) control sounds

25% of varience due to time of day

Honeyguides tended to cease guiding behaviour more often when either of two control sounds were produced - resulting in no bee nests

Found bee nests 80% of the time when playing honeyhunter sound

Production of honeyhunting sound more than tripled probability of finding a bee nest