In Africa, Birds and Humans Form a Unique Honey Hunting Party
Teresa Binstock
In Africa, Birds and Humans Form a
Unique Honey Hunting Party
By NATALIE ANGIER
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/23/science/birds-bees-honeyguides-africa.html
Their word is their bond, and they do what they say — even if the
“word” on one side is a loud trill and grunt, and, on the other,
the excited twitterings of a bird.
Researchers have long known that among certain traditional
cultures of Africa, people forage for wild honey with the help of
honeyguides — woodpecker-like birds that show tribesmen where the
best beehives are hidden, high up in trees. In return for
revealing the location of natural honey pots, the birds are
rewarded with the leftover beeswax, which they eagerly devour.
Now scientists have determined that humans and their honeyguides
communicate with each other through an extraordinary exchange of
sounds and gestures, which are used only for honey hunting and
serve to convey enthusiasm, trustworthiness and a commitment to
the dangerous business of separating bees from their hives.
The findings cast fresh light on one of only a few known examples
of cooperation between humans and free-living wild animals, a
partnership that may well predate the love affair between people
and their domesticated dogs by hundreds of thousands of years....
* * * *
For additional insights into bidirectional communication between
humans and animals, see:
Make Prayers to the Raven: A Koyukon
View of the Northern Forest
by Richard K. Nelson
1983
The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception
and Language in a More-Than-Human World
David Abram
1997
Teresa
Nita Renfrew
From: Teresa Binstock <tcbin...@q.com>
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Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2016 9:22 AM
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