As humans have advanced so much in technology, it may seem like we have lost touch with nature, but not all of us have. People in some parts of Africa use a guide that is more effective than any GPS system in finding beeswax and honey. This is a bird, not a gizmo.
of Greater Honey Guide (very apt name), indicator indicator (an even more appropriate scientific name), they eat beeswax, so they know where all the hives are. The Hadza people of Tanzania and the Yao people of Mozambique realized this long ago. Hadza and Yao honey hunters have a unique relationship with this bird by emitting a unique call, which the bees reciprocate and guide them to their hives.
Because Hadza and Yao have different calls, zoologist Claire Spottiswood of the University of Cambridge and anthropologist Brian Wood of UCLA are wondering whether the birds generally respond to human calls or tune in to local humans. I wanted to find out if it was there. They found that birds were much more likely to respond to local calls. This means the bird has learned to recognize the call.
Now get that honey
To see which sounds the birds were most likely to respond to, Spottiswood and Wood played three recordings starting with local calls. The Yao honeyguide’s call is described by researchers as a “loud trill followed by a grunt (‘bleep’),” whereas the Hadza’s call is more of a “melodic whistle.” , the researchers say. study Recently published in Science magazine. The second recording they play is a foreign call, which is a Yao call in Hadza territory and vice versa.
The third recording was an unrelated human voice intended to test whether a human voice alone would be sufficient for the Honey Guide to follow. Because Hadza and Yao’s voices are similar, the researchers alternated between recordings of Honey Hunter saying words such as his name.
So which sound was the most effective cue for honey guides to cooperate with humans? In Tanzania, local Hadza telephones were more likely to encourage partnership with honey guides than Yao calls or human voices. They were three times more likely to start. Local yao calls were also the most successful in Mozambique, and were twice as likely to elicit a response that led to a cooperative effort to locate honey bee nests compared to hadza calls or human voices. Honeyguides sometimes responded to other sounds and were willing to cooperate when they heard them, but the birds in each area were as much a part of their lives as the Honeyguides’ birds. It became clear that they were learning about the local cultural traditions that have become the norm. The person who started it.
now you speak my language
There’s a reason why honey hunters, both Hadza and Yao, told Mr. Wood and Mr. Spottiswood that they have never changed their nickname and never will. Even if they did, they were unlikely to collect this much honey.
How did this interspecies communication evolve? African cultures other than the Hadza and Yao have their own calls for calling honey guides. Why are the types of calls different? Researchers do not believe these calls occurred randomly.
Both the Hadza and Yao have their own languages, sounds of which may be incorporated into their calls. But that’s not all. The Hadza often hunt animals for honey. Therefore, the Hadza people do not want their sounds to be recognized as human. Otherwise, the prey you are chasing may feel threatened and run away. This may be why they use whistles to communicate with bees. Their bird-like calls attract bees and allow them to sneak up on their prey undetected.
In contrast, the Yao do not hunt mammals and rely primarily on agriculture and fishing for food. This, combined with the fact that they try to avoid potentially dangerous creatures such as lions, rhinos, and elephants, may explain why they use human-recognizable vocalizations to call their honeyguides. I can. Human voices can scare these animals, so honey hunters in Yao City can safely search for honey with their honey guide partners. These findings indicate that cultural diversity has a significant impact on calls to honey guides.
Animals may not literally speak human language, but honeyguides are just one of many species that communicate with humans in unique ways. They can also learn about our cultural traditions.
“Cultural traditions of consistent behavior are widespread in non-human animals and may likely mediate other forms of interspecies cooperation,” the researchers said in the same paper. study.
Honey guides start guiding humans as soon as they start flying. This trick, combined with learning how to respond to traditional calls and work with honey hunters, works well for both humans and birds. Perhaps they are speaking our language (in a sense).
Science, 2023. DOI: 10.1126/science.adh412
