Can the honeyguide show us a new way to connect with nature?

Humans have few wild friends, but the honeyguide birds who lead Mozambican hunters to honey give us hope for relationships with mutual benefit

Nature works rather like the EU. There are deals between species. Uneasy relationships. Mistrust. Boundaries. Borders. Territory. Investments. Yet every now and then, new and surprising relationships emerge between animals. Among the rarest is mutualism.

In humans, as in other animals, mutualism is rare. But this week, scientists announced that the mutualistic relationship between the wild honeyguide – a rather nondescript brown bird – and local humans is even closer and weirder than many had suspected. Not only do these strange birds lead human hunters to bees’ nests in exchange for some of the spoils, scientists have now discovered that the birds can be attracted out of the trees by a distinctive trilling sound that local hunter-gatherers use while looking for honey. According to the researchers, hunters are taught this special trilling noise by their fathers. They call the honeyguides in, essentially.

Related: Sweet talk: wild birds and human honey hunters converse, study shows

The honeyguide has negotiated what is possibly the first ever trade deal between a wild animal and a human

Continue reading...