African Honeyguides

Research on a remarkable
human-animal relationship

Publications

Scientific papers on honeyguide-human mutualism

Spottiswoode, C.N. and Wood, B.M. 2023. Culturally determined interspecies communication between humans and honeyguides. Science 382: 1155-1158. Read abstract in English and Portuguese here
Cram, D.L., Lloyd-Jones, D.J., van der Wal, J.E.M., Lund, J., Buanachique, I.O., Muamedi, M., Nanguar, C.I., Ngovene, A., Raveh, S., Boner, W., Spottiswoode, C.N. 2023. Guides and cheats: producer-scrounger dynamics in the human-honeyguide mutualism. Proceedings Royal Society B 290: 20232024. Read abstract in English and Portuguese here
van der Wal, J.E.M., Afan, A.I., Anyawire, M., Begg, C.M., Begg, K.S., Dabo, G.A., Gedi, I.I., Harris, J.A., Isack, H.A., Ibrahim^,J.I., Jamie, G.A., Kamboe^,W.-B.W., Kilawi, A.O., Kingston, A., Laltaika, E.A., Lloyd-Jones, D.J., M’manga, G.M., Muhammad, N.Z., Ngcamphalala, C.A., Nhlabatsi, S.O., Oleleteyo, T.T., Sanda, M., Tsamkxao, L., Wood, B.M., Spottiswoode, C.N., Cram, D.L. 2023 Do honey badgers and greater honeyguide birds cooperate to access bees’ nests? Ecological evidence and honey-hunter accounts. Journal of Zoology 321: 22-32 Read abstract in English, Portuguese and Kiswahili here
Lloyd-Jones, D.J., St Clair, J.J., Cram, D. L., Yassene, O., van der Wal, J.E. and Spottiswoode, C.N. 2022. When wax wanes: competitors for beeswax stabilize rather than jeopardize the honeyguide–human mutualism. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 289: 20221443. Read abstract in English and Portuguese here
Spottiswoode, C.N., & Lund, J. & Lloyd-Jones, D.J. 2022 Quick Guide: Honeyguides. Current Biology 32: R1072-R107
Cram, D.L., van der Wal, J.E.M., Uomini, N.T., Cantor, M., Afan, A.I., Attwood, M.C., Amphaeris, J., Balasani, F., Blair, C.J., Bronstein, J.L., Buanachique, I.O., Cuthill, R.R.T., Das, J., Daura-Jorge, F.G., Deb, A., Dixit, T., Dlamini, G.S., Dounias, E., Gedi, I.I., Gruber, M., Hoffman, L.S., Holzlehner, T., Isack, H.A., Laltaika, A.E., Lloyd-Jones, D.J., Lund, J., Machado, A.M.S., Mahadevan, L., Moreno, I.B., Nwaogu, C.J., Pierotti, R., Rucunua, S.A., dos Santos, W.F., Serpa, N., Smith, B.D., Sridhar, H., Tolkova, I., Tun, T., Valle-Pereira, J.V.S., Wood, B.M., Wrangham, R.W. & Spottiswoode, C.N. 2022 The ecology and evolution of human-wildlife cooperation. People and Nature 4: 841-855. Read abstract in English, Portuguese and Kiswahili here
van der Wal, J.E.M., Spottiswoode, C.N., Uomini, N.T., Cantor, M., Daura-Jorge, F.G., Afan, A.I., Attwood, M.C., Amphaeris, J., Balasani, F., Begg, C.M., Blair, C.J., Bronstein, J.L., Buanachique, I.O., Cuthill, R.R.T., Das, J., Deb, A., Dixit, T., Dlamini, G.S., Dounias, E., Gedi, I.I., Gruber, M., Hoffman, L.S., Holzlehner, T., Isack, H.A., Laltaika, A.E., Lloyd-Jones, D.J., Lund, J., Machado, A.M.S., Mahadevan, L., Moreno, I.B., Nwaogu, C.J., Pereira, V.L., Pierotti, R., Rucunua, S.A., dos Santos, W.F., Serpa, N., Smith, B.D., Tolkova, I., Tun, T., Valle-Pereira, J.V.S., Wood, B.M., Wrangham, R.W. & Cram, D.L. 2022 Safeguarding human-wildlife cooperation. Conservation Letters e12886 Read abstract in English, Portuguese and Kiswahili here
van der Wal, J.E.M., Gedi, I. & Spottiswoode, C.N. 2022 Awer honey-hunting culture with greater honeyguides in coastal Kenya. Frontiers in Conservation Science 2: 727479.
Spottiswoode, C.N., Begg, K.S. & Begg, C.M. 2016 Reciprocal signaling in honeyguide-human mutualism. Science 353: 387-389

Selected press coverage: New York Times | The Atlantic | The New Yorker | National Geographic | The Guardian

Listen to a BBC Radio 4 programme on honeyguides featuring this research as well as work by our collaborator Dr Brian Wood

Watch a YouTube video about this research

Scientific papers on honeyguide brood parasitism

Tong, W., Horrocks, N.P.C. & Spottiswoode, C.N. 2015 The sight of an adult brood parasite near the nest is an insufficient cue for a honeyguide host to reject foreign eggs. Ibis 157: 626–630.
Spottiswoode, C.N. 2013 A brood parasite selects for its own egg traits. Biology Letters 9: 20130573.
Spottiswoode, C.N. & Koorevaar, J. 2012 A stab in the dark: chick killing by brood parasitic honeyguides. Biology Letters 8: 241–244.
Spottiswoode, C.N., Stryjewski, K.F., Quader, S., Colebrook-Robjent, J.F.R. & Sorenson, M.D. 2011 Ancient host-specificity within a single species of brood parasitic bird. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 108: 17738–17742.
Birkhead, T.R., Hemmings, N., Spottiswoode, C.N., Mikulica, O, Moskát, C., Bán, M. & Schulze-Hagen, K. 2011 Internal incubation and early hatching in brood parasitic birds. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 278, 1019–1024.
Spottiswoode, C.N. & Colebrook-Robjent, J.F.R. 2007 Egg puncturing by the brood parasitic Greater Honeyguide and potential host counteradaptations. Behavioral Ecology 18: 792–799.

Popular articles

Spottiswoode, C.N. 2021 Human-bird cooperation in Niassa. Chinguirira 2: 202-215.
van der Wal, J.E.M. & Spottiswoode C.N. 2020 Wanted: Greater Honeyguide sightings. African Birdlife 9(5):16.
Spottiswoode, C.N. 2017 One good turn: exploring human-honeyguide mutualism. African Birdlife 2017(2): 22-28.

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News

Honey-hunting Research Network workshop

Feb 16, 2024

The Honey-hunting Research Network (coordinated by Jessica van der Wal) met in Cape Town for a very enjoyable week of analysing and comparing interview data from honey-hunting cultures across Africa, painting a picture of the human cultural variation relevant to honeyguides, and its uncertain future on a rapidly changing continent. Joining in person were Wiro-Bless Kamboe, Rochelle Mphetlhe, George M’manga, Sanele Nhlabatsi, Daniella Mhangwana, Celiwe Ngcamphalala, Claire Spottiswoode and Jessica van der Wal. Thank you to the Cultural Evolution Society Transformation Fund for funding our get-together!

New paper on human-honeyguide cooperation and communication

Dec 8, 2023

A new study from the Honeyguide Research Project shows that Greater Honeyguides learn the distinct calls that honey-hunters in different parts of Africa use to communicate with them, facilitating cooperation between species. Human honey-hunters signal to honeyguides using specialised calls that vary culturally across Africa. The new study shows using field experiments in Mozambique and Tanzania that honeyguides prefer the specialised calls of the local human culture they interact with, compared to those of a foreign culture. This implies that honeyguides can adjust to human cultural diversity, increasing the benefits of cooperation for both people and birds.

New paper: Guides and cheats in the human-honeyguide mutualism

Nov 9, 2023

Our new paper investigates whether cheating honeyguides jeopardise the cooperation between honey-hunters and honeyguides, by investigating which birds guide and which birds cheat, and the pay-offs of these two tactics.