Reciprocal signaling in honeyguide-human mutualism

Abstract

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 to 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.CNS was supported by a BBSRC David Phillips Research Fellowship (BB/J014109/1) and the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from AAAS via http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aaf488