African Honeyguides

Research on a remarkable
human-animal relationship

Dr Susan Miller

Susan Miller

Biography

I am broadly interested in the application of science to conservation issues with a special interest in genetics. My doctoral research investigated the conservation challenges of managing lions on small reserves in South Africa, with a strong genetic component. I followed this with a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at the University of Pretoria studying the genetics of colour variants in the game industry before joining the FitzPatrick Institute at the University of Cape Town as a postdoctoral fellow in 2017 where I started applying my genetic knowledge to avian systems.

From January 2021 until March 2023 I took on the part-time role as Manager of the DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence at the Fitz while continuing to pursue research projects on Lesser Sheathbill genetics, avian malaria in Cape Sugarbirds and Orange-breasted Sunbirds, Australian Dingo population genetics and Lion metapopulation management.

In June 2023 I joined the African Honeyguide team to provide logistical, administration support as well as molecular genetics support for the honeybee component of the project.

Selected research outputs

(Please see Google Scholar for a full publication list)

 

News

Tragic attacks in the Niassa Special Reserve, Mozambique

On 29 April 2025, armed insurgents attacked the Mariri Environmental Centre in Mozambique’s Niassa Special Reserve, resulting in the tragic loss of two anti-poaching scouts, Domingos Daude and Fernando Paolo Wirsone (please see statement from the Niassa Carnivore Project). This followed a prior tragic attack at Kambako Safari camp on 19 April. Mariri and the nearby village of Mbamba are at the heart of our work on human-honeyguide cooperation, made possible by the knowledge and partnership of the Mbamba honey-hunting community. We grieve alongside the people of Mariri, Mbamba, and the wider Niassa community, and stand in solidarity with the enduring spirit of conservation and unity.

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New paper on honeyguides guiding to snakes (and a mammal) rather than to bees

In a new study from the Honeyguide Research Project, we are excited to present evidence that honeyguides occasionally guide humans to non-bee animals. Our research – which builds on centuries of reports by a wide variety of human cultures across Africa – shows how the behaviour of honeyguides when guiding humans to wild bees’ nests, is spatially and acoustically similar to when honeyguides guide humans to other kinds of animal. In Niassa Special Reserve, where this research was conducted, we find this to be a rare behaviour (occurring on around 1% of honey-hunting interactions). We suggest that the most likely explanation for such behaviour is not as punishment for not previously rewarding the birds with beeswax, nor as a form of altruistic warning behaviour, but rather, due to cognitive mistakes in the birds’ spatial recall.

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Lailat and Jessica on fieldwork at Niassa

Lailat Guta and Jessica van der Wal returned to the Niassa Special Reserve, to visit our long-term collaborators in the Mbamba honey-hunting community and at Mariri Environmental Centre. As part of Lailat’s MSc research on the relationship between honey-hunting and the broader ecosystem, Lailat and Jessica are conducting interviews with honey-hunters and other knowledgeable individuals to document the economic and cultural values of trees and crops, and their dependence on bees.

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