Hadza hunters and gatherers (northern Tanzania) – one of the closest to the primitive state of the peoples of Africa – have established mutually beneficial cooperation with birds, which lead people to the sources of honey.
However, the Hadza tend to minimize the benefits that birds receive from this symbiosis, American anthropologist Brian Wood, author of an article in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior, found out. Short study can be found on the press release of Yale University.
The greater honeyguide (Indicator indicator), in addition to insects, feed on wax. To reach the contents of the hive, they sharply shout out to animals and people about the proximity of the bee’s nest. They eat the larvae (or honey) and, as the birds hope, leave them a honeycomb.
Wood found out that birds find five times more bee nests for a hadza than collectors discover on their own, and there is always more honey in such nests. From eight to ten percent of their annual diet, African hunters and gatherers are mined thanks to the greater honeyguide.
Zoologists and anthropologists believed that people generously reward their feathered assistants, however, as Wood found out, everything happens exactly the opposite. “People hide, bury in the ground or burn all the honeycombs that the birds could eat. They do this so that the birds remain hungry and lead the gatherers to other colonies of bees, ”says the scientist.
However, the birds still do not remain at a loss. People are much better than honeyguide able to open the hive and get to the honeycomb. Despite all the efforts of the Hadza, the birds manage to find pieces of wax and eat them.
“The relationship between the honey hunters and the hunter-gatherers tells us that the mutual benefits of cooperation persist even when one side manipulates the other. The symbiosis of birds and hominin has developed many thousands, if not millions of years ago, ”Wood said.