Published July 1, 2017 | Version v1

Data from: Reciprocal signaling in honeyguide-human mutualism

  • 1. University of Cambridge
  • 2. The Ratel Trust, Niassa Carnivore Project, Private Bag X18, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa.*

Description

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.

Notes

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Related works

Is cited by
10.1126/science.aaf4885 (DOI)