TheMysterious Honeyguide
By David Ren
任大偉
Commonly
found in the forests
of sub-Saharan Africa, the greater honeyguide
(Latin name
Indicator indicator
) is one of the few
birds that can digest beeswax. Their diet extends
to the rem
as bee eg
particularly adept at seeking beehives to secure
their prey. Avoiding bees and their stings, however,
prove too difficult for these relatively defenceless
smal l bi rds. I ns tead, they en l i s t the help of
honey hunters of the Yao people in Northern
Mozambique.
Honey hunters summon nearby honeyguides
with a loud brr-hmm noise, often referred to as the
trill-grunt. The birds respond by chirping and flying
toward the beehive. In a harmony of calls and
responses, the honey hunter and the honeyguide
repeat in reaffirmation to seek their common goal.
Once identified, human hunters will envelop the
hive with smoke and fire to disorient the bees to
mask any attack pheromones. The hive is then
cracked open to retrieve the honey. The entire
process is no easy feat – beehives tend to be
神秘的
響蜜鴷
References
參考：
[1] Birdlife International (2012). “Indicator Indicator”. IUCN Red List
of Threatened Species.
[2] Spottiswoode, C. N., Begg, K. S., Begg, C. M. Reciprocal
signalling in honeyguide-human mutualism.
Science
(2016). DOI:
10.1126/science.aaf4885
[3] Yong, E. How to Summon the Bird That Guides You to Honey. The
Atlantic. Retrieved from
/
[4] Giamo, C. The Surprisingly Sticky Tale of the Hadza and the
Honeyguide Bird (2016).
Atlas Obscura
. Retrieved from
http://
f-
[5] Wood, B. M., Pontzer, H., Raichlen, D. A., Marlowe, F. W.
Mutualism and manipulation in Hadza – honeyguide
interactions (2014).
Evolution & Human Behaviour
. Retrieved
from
abstract
