Reading 5.2 Spottiswoode Honeyguides

Question 1

Hypotheses

Answer 1

• To test whether guiding behaviour accurately indicates the direction of bees’ nests and leads to their successful discovery by humans
  • Whether the signals used by human honey-hunters provide reliable information to honeyguides
  • We examined whether honeyguides associated this vocal signal with a higher chance of a payoff from cooperation. If so, then honeyguides should be more likely to initiate collaboration with humans producing this honey-hunting sound rather than other sounds

Question 2

Where was the study performed?

Answer 2

Mozambique

Question 3

Methods - honeyguides guide human hunters accurately

Answer 3

• Guiding events across a 230km2 study area
  • 75.3% of guiding events led to the successful discovery by humans of at least one bees nest
  • 74.5% of bees nest found by humans involved a honeyguide

Question 4

How large of a study area were the guiding events based off?

Answer 4

230km2

Question 5

What percentage of guiding events led to the successful discovery by humans of at least one bees nest?

Answer 5

75.3%

Question 6

Methods- signals used by human honey-hunters provide reliable information to honeyguides

Answer 6

• Yao honey hunters use a certain vocalization trill followed by a grunt
  • 20 hunters were interviewed and It was found that it was only used in honey foraging no other context
  • This sound has the potential to reliably signal to honeyguides that a prospective human partner is specifically seeking honey and has the tools, skills, and time to open a bees’ nest, which many humans do not
  • A payoff to the bird reliably results from interacting with such a partner, because if a bees’ nest is harvested then wax is left behind, either as combs containing no honey or as chewed lumps spat out by honey-hunters.

Question 7

Is the foraging call only made in the context of communicating with honeyguides?

Answer 7

Yes

Question 8

Methods - honeyguides associated this vocal signal with a higher chance of a payoff from cooperation

Answer 8

• 72 15 minute experimental transects
  • Three acoustic cues, two controls 1 human 1 animal and the specific vocalisation
• Temperature effects also tested

Question 9

What percentage probability is there of eliciting a honeyguide under a proper call?

Answer 9

66.7%

25% human control

33% animal control

Relationship between controls was not significant

Question 10

How much variance in being led by a honeyguide did the time relative to sunrise or sunset account for?

Answer 10

25%

Question 11

Honeyguides tended to … guiding behaviour more often when either control sounds were produced

Answer 11

Cease

Question 12

Did acoustic measures explain any variance in guiding behaviour?

Answer 12

No - therefore elevated response to the honey hunting sound is most parsimoniously explained by the association with successful collaboration

Question 13

What is the other comparison so far of a mutualistic relationship in the animal world?

Answer 13

Fishermen and free-living dolphins (Busnel, R.G.)

Question 14

What is the most likely cause for bees mutualistic relationship?

Answer 14

Most likely a learned behaviour, learning may occur socially from conspecifics in the vicinity of bees’ nests, resulting in a local cultural tradition among honeyguides

Question 15

How did the learning evolve?

Answer 15

Natural selection