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the honey guide
Nov. 22nd, 2002 11:57 amin the plains of africa, there is a bird (Scientific name: Indicator indicator, ) called the "Honey Guide" in the local african tongues. The bird lives on the larvae of bees, and on honey. Much more energy can be derived from honey than by foraging for insects or seeds. But the honey guide has none of the evolutionary tools for traditional bee predators. It has no thick layer of subcutaneous fat, like a bear, it has no strong talons to break a hive, and it doesn't have a ridiculously long beak to dip into a bee tree. It would seem to a casual observer to be a very unimpressively equipped bird for it's preferred food source. But the Honey Guide has solved it's riddle. It doesn't know what a puzzle it is. And it does very well for itself.
Instead of spending it's time negotiating the admittedly tricky world of the beehive, the honey guide simply looks around all day until it finds a beehive. then it's job is half over. Once the guide has found a tree, it flies off to it's chosen human village, where it waits for morning. In the morning, a honey hunting crew will wake and go outside the huts. The honey guide will then flit off from tree to tree, never leaving the sight of the crew, until it reaches the tree that contains the chosen colony of bees. There it will stop. The crew comes, and they build a fire at the base of the tree (usually a large Baobob) then they will take large clumps of elephant dung mixed with grass and burn this in the fire until it smoulders, and this will be tossed into the tree. The thick smoke bewilders and drugs the bees (oxygen starvation) and they become so docile that one can reach into the tree and remove the honey comb and the larval bees while sustaining only a few stings.
The crew will empty the hive of honey in this way, and they will store it in pots. Almost all of the comb, that is. A small piece is left in a nearby tree or placed on top of a stick stuck in the ground, for the honey guide. The honey guide eats this, and then goes out and spends the rest of the day looking for another honey tree, so it can be waiting in the morning to guide the crew.
The tribes local to the areas of africa where this occurs, say that there have always been honey guides, as long as there have been people, and if someone originally domesticated these birds and then trained some of them to lead the crews to honey, then they have no memory of it. Certainly no one trains the birds now, there are just honey guides in the world.
Instead of spending it's time negotiating the admittedly tricky world of the beehive, the honey guide simply looks around all day until it finds a beehive. then it's job is half over. Once the guide has found a tree, it flies off to it's chosen human village, where it waits for morning. In the morning, a honey hunting crew will wake and go outside the huts. The honey guide will then flit off from tree to tree, never leaving the sight of the crew, until it reaches the tree that contains the chosen colony of bees. There it will stop. The crew comes, and they build a fire at the base of the tree (usually a large Baobob) then they will take large clumps of elephant dung mixed with grass and burn this in the fire until it smoulders, and this will be tossed into the tree. The thick smoke bewilders and drugs the bees (oxygen starvation) and they become so docile that one can reach into the tree and remove the honey comb and the larval bees while sustaining only a few stings.
The crew will empty the hive of honey in this way, and they will store it in pots. Almost all of the comb, that is. A small piece is left in a nearby tree or placed on top of a stick stuck in the ground, for the honey guide. The honey guide eats this, and then goes out and spends the rest of the day looking for another honey tree, so it can be waiting in the morning to guide the crew.
The tribes local to the areas of africa where this occurs, say that there have always been honey guides, as long as there have been people, and if someone originally domesticated these birds and then trained some of them to lead the crews to honey, then they have no memory of it. Certainly no one trains the birds now, there are just honey guides in the world.
