African Honeyguides

Research on a remarkable
human-animal relationship

Dr Jessica E.M. van der Wal

email:

Biography

Jessica van der Wal

I study behaviour at the intersection of human and non-human animal behavioural ecology. I hold BSc and MSc degrees from Wageningen University in the Netherlands, and a PhD from the University of St Andrews, in the UK. I have been part of the African Honeyguides Project since early 2019, first as a postdoctoral researcher (2019–2024) supported by the University of Cape Town, the European Research Council, and the Cultural Evolution Society Transformation Fund. Since September 2024, I have been working as a research coordinator of the Honey-hunting Research Network, based in the Netherlands and supported by the Max Planck–University of Cape Town Centre for Behaviour and Coevolution, and affiliated to the University of Cape Town as an Honorary Research Affiliate.

Research focus

I study the human cultural diversity that sustains human-honeyguide cooperation. I take a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach, integrating behavioural ecology and anthropology to document and understand honey-hunting cultures across Africa. I am the founder and coordinator of the Honey-hunting Research Network, a collective of early-career researchers dedicated to documenting Africa’s remaining honey-hunting traditions. This network was largely made possible by funding from the Cultural Evolution Society Transformation Fund (2023–2024). I also manage Honeyguiding.me, a citizen science initiative engaging the public in honeyguide research.

Peer-reviewed publications:

van der Wal, J.E.M., D’Amelio, P.B., Dauda, C., Cram, D.L., Wood, B.M., & Spottiswoode, C.N. 2026. Cooperative human signals to honeyguides form local dialects. People and Nature, 00: 1–13.
Kamboe, W.-B.-W., Spottiswoode, C.N., Aikins, T.K., & van der Wal, J.E.M. 2025. Honey-hunting with honeyguides in northern Ghana: Cultural continuity amid change. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 380(1940), Article 20240264.
Nhlabatsi, S.O., Dlamini, G.S., Ngcamphalala, C.A., & van der Wal, J.E.M. 2025. Recreational honey‑hunting with honeyguides in the Kingdom of Eswatini. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 292(2052), Article 20250255. Read abstract in English and SiSwati here.
van der Wal, J.E.M., Dauda, C., Lloyd-Jones, D.J., Murico, H., Begg, C.M., Begg, K.S., Jorge, A.A., Spottiswoode, C.N. 2025. The economic value of human-honeyguide mutualism in Reserva Especial do Niassa, Moçambique. Ecosystem Services 101696. 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.
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 DOI: 10.1111/jzo.13093 Read abstract in English and Kiswahili here
Lloyd-Jones, D.J., St Clair, J.J.H., Cram, D.L., Yassene, O., van der Wal, J.E.M. and Spottiswoode, C.N. 2022 When wax wanes: competitors for beeswax stabilize rather than jeopardize the honeyguide–human mutualism. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 289: 20221443.
Swinkels, C., van der Wal, J.E.M., Stinn, C., Monteza-Morena, C.M. and Jansen, P.A. 2022 Prey tracking and predator avoidance in a Neotropical moist forest: a camera-trapping approach. Journal of Mammalogy 104: 137-145.
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., Pereira, V.L., 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. & Sugasawa, S., 2022 Correspondence: Opportunities and risks of publishing academic talks online. Nature Ecology & Evolution https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01755-6
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.
van der Wal, J.E.M., Thorogood, R. & Horrocks, N.P.C. 2021 Collaboration enhances career progression in academic science, especially for female researchers. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 288: 20210219.
St Clair, J., Klump, B.C., van der Wal, J.E.M., Sugasawa, S. & Rutz, C. 2016 Strong between-site variation in New Caledonian crows’ use of hook-tool-making materials. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 118: 226-232.
Rutz, C., Sugasawa, S., van der Wal, J.E.M., Klump, B.C. & St Clair, J. 2016 Tool bending in New Caledonian crows. Royal Society Open Science 3: 160439.
Klump, B.C., van der Wal, J.E.M, St Clair, J. & Rutz, C. 2015 Context-dependent ‘safekeeping’ of foraging tools in New Caledonian crows. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 282: 20150278.
van der Wal, J.E.M., Dorenbosch, M., Immers, A.K., Vidal Forteza, C., Geurts, J.J., Peeters, E.T., Koese, B. & Bakker, E.S. 2013 Invasive crayfish threaten the development of submerged macrophytes in lake restoration. PLoS One 8: e78579.

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News

New study shows that honey-hunter calls vary regionally like dialects

Jan 22, 2026

We have published a new study in People and Nature showing that people in northern Mozambique use regionally distinct “dialects” when communicating with honeyguides. Led by Jessica van der Wal, the paper shows that human–honeyguide communication varies across landscapes in ways that mirror regional variation in human languages. Despite these differences in calls, cooperation between people and honeyguides remains successful and important for human livelihoods across the Niassa Special Reserve, suggesting that both species adjust to one another across their shared landscape.

New paper on honey-hunting with honeyguides in western Africa

Dec 4, 2025

We are pleased to share our new paper on honey-hunting with honeyguides, in western Africa this time. Led by Wiro-Bless Kamboe as part of his MSc project, and co-authored with Claire Spottiswoode and Timothy Khan Aikins, with Jessica van der Wal as senior author, the study documents honey-hunting practices in northern Ghana and explores the involvement of greater honeyguides. We found that while mutualism persists, it occurs at lower levels than those documented in eastern and southern Africa. Honey-hunters in Ghana often visit known bees’ nests without honeyguides’ help, and discarded beeswax continues to supplement the birds’ diet. We found no clear evidence that socio-economic changes, such as increased access to motorised transport, have disrupted this relationship.

Dr David Lloyd-Jones graduates with his PhD

Sep 9, 2025

Dr David Lloyd-Jones graduated with his PhD from the University of Cape Town, entitled “Cooperation, ecology and behaviour in the honeyguide-human mutualism” – congratulations, David, on this wonderful outcome of many happy years of fieldwork in the Niassa Special Reserve together with our honey-hunter collaborators and friends, supported by the Mariri Environmental Centre.