the fitzpatrick report

GREATER HONEYGUIDE wanted: SIGHTINGS Honeyguiding.me is a citizen science research project to better understand the remarkable cooperative relationship between humans and the Greater Honeyguide Indicator indicator. We invite all birders and bush enthusiasts to submit their sightings of Greater Honeyguides (whether the bird guided you or not) anywhere in Africa. These records will enable us to map the current extent of guiding behaviour, to track it over time, and in the process help shed light on how honeyguides acquire their ability to engage with humans.

he specialised relationship be- While the honeyguide–human tween the Greater Honeyguide mutualism was probably once com- and humans is an extremely rare mon throughout sub-Saharan Africa, it exampleT of animal–human coopera- is now much reduced. Honeyguides do tion that has evolved through natural occasionally attempt to guide humans selection. Bird and human collaborate in many African countries, but as far to gain access to bees’ nests, from as we know the mutualism only really which humans acquire honey and thrives in a few remote areas where honeyguides obtain wax. Honeyguides people still rely on a regular supply of Please send us your Greater Honeyguide know where bees’ nests are located but wild-harvested honey. sightings at Honeyguiding.me cannot get at the wax by themselves, We are interested in understand- whereas humans aren’t nearly as good ing how this mutualism is maintained guided to a bees’ nest and whether the at finding bees’ nests, but have fire to across time and space. Through the bird you saw showed any other interest- subdue the bees and tools to open their Honeyguiding.me citizen science project, ing behaviours, such as feeding from nests. As a team, they can gain more we hope to learn where guiding still man-made beehives or interacting with food than either would on their own. occurs in Africa, giving us a baseline host species (since Greater Honeyguides The consequent mutualistic partnership against which to monitor future chang- are also brood parasites). There’s also between this bird and man is probably es. This will also allow us to test specific an option to upload any photographs, ancient – perhaps even older than our ideas about how honeyguides gain and videos or sound recordings associated own species, given that our ancestors lose their ability to guide humans. with your sighting. are thought to have mastered the use of Please help us! Visit our website at These questions form part of our wid- fire up to 1.9 million years ago. Honeyguiding.me and submit your er project on understanding the ecology Greater Honeyguide sightings from any- and evolution of honeyguide–human where on the continent. We’ll ask where mutualism, funded by the European and when you saw (or heard) a Greater Research Council and based jointly at Honeyguide, whether it was an adult the FitzPatrick Institute and the Univer- or had the distinctive bright yellow un- sity of Cambridge. For more information derparts of juveniles/immatures (if you on our other honeyguide research, visit know this – it is important information www.AfricanHoneyguides.com for us) and whether the bird guided you. Jessica van der Wal & Claire Spottiswoode Mapping where Greater Honeyguides are present but rarely or never guide Read more about Claire Spottiswoode’s people is as important as a guiding honeyguiding research experiences in record, so please send us all your records, Africa in ‘One Good Turn’, African Birdlife, dominic cram including those when the bird did not March/April 2017. We welcome all records of both adult and attempt to guide you. immature Greater Honeyguides. Please tell us We welcome recent sightings and For more information, contact the age of the bird if you know it: immature those from the past – this could be the The Director, FitzPatrick Greater Honeyguides have distinctive yellow perfect time to re-live happy birding Institute of African Ornithology, underparts that start out wholly yellow and trips through your old notebooks! We University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa 7701. reduce to a yellow breast patch as the bird would also appreciate any additional E-mail [email protected], approaches the end of its first year. information, such as whether you were tel. +27 (0)21 650 3291 or visit www.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za

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