Amazing birds from Africa that help people find honey

For millennia, humans have used dogs that once became our friends to hunt. But among such assistants there are also birds. This is surprising, because the birds are practically not domesticated and seem completely independent from humans. However, in Africa there is a special bird that comes into contact with a person and helps to find wild honey. This is one of the most unusual partnerships that are found in nature.

Why do medical scientists need help

Honey guides, or, as they are also called, medical experts, feed on beeswax. This is very unusual for a bird: they are practically the only birds that can digest this heavy product. Of course, there is another food in their diet: insects, plants, but wax is their favorite treat.

True, the birds cannot get to the beehives on their own: the bees are dangerous for them, and the wax is reliably protected. Therefore, they call for help from people and lead them to the hive. Africans listen to medical scientists and follow them. When a bird leads a person to the hive, it sits nearby and awaits its treats. The natives fumble the bees so that they fall asleep, and then they take out the honey. And, of course, they always pay their assistants, leaving them pieces of wax.

Follow me

The media handlers even developed a special signal to attract a person. These small birds the size of a lark fly very close, begin to flutter with their wings and seem to bounce, making a loud “tirr-tirr-tirr”. Then they lead the collector behind them: a medical expert flies over the treetops, periodically returning to a person. When the goal is reached, the bird sits next to the hive and again makes an uncharacteristic sound, only now it is softer and calmer. That's all, it remains only to wait until a person drugged dangerous insects and share prey with him.

The natives even learned to communicate with the medical directors, as if conducting a dialogue. True, different tribes make different sounds. So, for example, representatives of yao from Mozambique call medical experts with a sound similar to grunt. So the bird understands that they are ready to follow it.

A joke that could not be believed for centuries

Communication with medical experts continues for many centuries. The first references date back to the 16th century: one Portuguese missionary spoke about the unusual natives of the natives. However, for a long time, zoologists did not believe in these slightly anecdotal legends. They confirmed the connection between humans and birds only in 1989, when ecologists thoroughly studied the birds.

True, an unusual partnership is threatened with extinction in the next century: people collect wild honey less and less, preferring to breed their own bees. Probably, medical experts will have to abandon their delicacies: 96% of the hives are generally inaccessible to birds until a person opens them.

Watch the video: Honey Guide Bird amazing BBC Documentary by jaandil7 YouTube (May 2024).